Weekly Tech Highlights: Apple's Upgradeable Smartwatch, Intel's Apple Deal And More

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) might end up dominating March without releasing a single new product.

Technically there is one new item on store shelves -- a revised 13-inch MacBook Pro that includes the new Force Touch pad. Apple's newest products, the Apple Watch and the long-awaited 12-inch MacBook, will ship in April.

Despite the wait, Apple still ruled the media with various announcements, analyst commentary and a host of rumors. Read on for more.

Apple Watch Could Be Apple's First Upgradeable Product In Years…

Soldered memory and glued batteries may not be part of Apple's upcoming smartwatch.

"I think most of the improvements will occur in the internal guts of the watch," Sean Udall, CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and author of The TechStrat Report, told Benzinga. "Effectively, a watch is a watch. Apple can literally upgrade a few key components inside."

Related Link: The Top 10 Analysts On Wall Street

…And It Might Have An Entirely New Display In 5 Years

Cody Willard, chairman of Scutify (a financial social network), told Benzinga that Apple Watch will go through a number of changes over the next few years.

"It's just not here yet," said Willard. "Apple's not going to put it on here until it's ready. Could be two years. Could be five years."

When it is ready, Willard expects Apple to deliver an Apple Watch with a projector or holographic display.

Intel's Troubles Preceded By Exciting Apple Rumor

Two days before Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) reduced its Q1 revenue estimates by nearly $1 billion, a rumor claimed that the company could supply LTE chips to Apple in 2016.

"It would be devastating for Qualcomm shareholders," Willard told Benzinga. "It would be huge for Intel not only because it would give them an actual in -- to Apple and the iPhone -- but it would validate Intel's chipsets and Intel would quickly replace ARM architecture as the de facto standard going forward."

If You Can't Make Revenue, Buy It!

Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) has acquired a lot of companies over the past few years. At the same time, its venture capital division regularly invests in promising startups.

These investments could pay off (as they did with YouTube), but Udall thinks Google should consider another strategy.

"[Google has] done a good job in investing from a VC standpoint," he told Benzinga. "They need another YouTube-type deal or bigger. Maybe they need to get into big data."

Udall also suggested that Google could buy as much as $10 billion in revenue by acquiring the right company.

Apple Gave HBO An Early Christmas Present

If there's one thing cable networks want, it's more leverage in negotiating content deals. One analyst believes that Apple gave that to HBO when it inked its latest partnership.

"It's important to look at that, 'cause ultimately what HBO is saying is, we have all these relationships with every MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor], and you're not doing a lot to promote our platform," Albert Fried & Company Director of Research Rich Tullo told Benzinga.

"As a matter of fact," he added, "you, Comcast, are perhaps doing more to promote Netflix than HBO. We don't like that. If we don't like that, we're going to take our show and put it on Apple and we have better economics than dealing with you if you're not going to promote our programming."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.