Here It Comes. But What Is It, Exactly? Apple Plans Keynote Event for September.
by Peter Kafka
Posted on August 13, 2009 at 9:28 AM PT
Time to get the rumor mill kicked into high gear: Multiple music industry sources say Apple executives have told them the company is planning one of its famed keynote events for the week of Sept. 7.
But in true Apple fashion, the company has been noncommittal about the exact date of the event and what it will be showing off.
I’ve asked Apple for comment and will report back if the company responds. But the timing makes sense and shouldn’t come as a surprise since Apple (AAPL) has traditionally used the week following Labor Day to show off new products and refresh existing product lines.
Two years ago, for instance, Apple introduced the iPod touch, which has since become a key part of the company’s arsenal. Last year, the event featured less substantial changes, like an overhaul of the iPod Nano.
Given that Apple has tipped off music industry executives, it’s a fair bet that the event will incorporate music in some way. Perhaps it will show off the new “Cocktail” format that Apple has been working on, which bundles full-length albums with other goodies like album covers and interactive bells and whistles.
But unless Apple unveils its so-called iTablet, a touchscreen device that’s supposed to be a cross between an iPhone and a full-fledged MacBook laptop computer, there are going to be a lot of disappointed Apple acolytes.
The other big appearance the Apple faithful will be looking for will be Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who hasn’t made an official public appearance since a keynote presentation last October.
During Apple’s September 2008 keynote, Jobs took time to dismiss reports that he was in failing health. But in January, Jobs said a “hormone imbalance” required him to step away from day-to-day leadership at the company, and news later surfaced that Jobs had undergone a liver transplant last spring. He’s been officially back at work since late June.
Comments
Congratulations, in one post you’ve managed to classify Apple customers as both “acolytes” and “the faithful.” Apparently selling products numbering in the hundreds of millions isn’t sufficient to bury these ancient cliches. What are these terms supposed to mean, or it just zombie language?
Posted by Mitch Stone at August 13th, 2009 at 11:24 amMitch, I think Peter is referring to people who get repetitive strain injury from clicking refresh repeatedly on sites live-blogging Apple press events.
If there is a new tablet and its apps are produced via the appstore I’m going to get one and make apps for it. I’m working on an iphone app right now.
Posted by Bjorn Tipling at August 13th, 2009 at 1:10 pmMitch, perhaps its hard for me to think up new terms because I am a faithful acolyte who both owns Apple products and writes about them. Or perhaps I’m a zombie! That would explain a lot.
Posted by Peter Kafka at August 13th, 2009 at 1:36 pmI wonder if Steve Jobs will do the keynote SOLO?
Neal Saferstein
Posted by Neal Saferstein at August 13th, 2009 at 3:36 pmhttp://nealsaferstein.com
Can the undead type? I thought their fingers would fall off if they tried. Shows you what I know.
Seriously, do the customers of any other company (however loyal they my be) get stuck with these descriptors? This may be a pet peeve of mine (for sure nobody else seems to care), but I do believe it’s past time to lay those terms to rest. If they ever applied, they certainly don’t anymore.
Posted by Mitch Stone at August 13th, 2009 at 4:04 pmI don’t expect a Tablet to be unveiled at this event. It would steal the thunder from the iPods.
The tablet will probably have a separate unveiling in the future, hopefully in advance of holiday shopping.
I do hope the new iPod touch has all of the features
the iPhone has with the exception of cell capabilities.
I would like to see the iPod Touch with a better still/video camera, perhaps the 5mpx that was rumored recently, along with built in microphone and gps etc.
No I don’t think such an iPod touch would seiously impact iPhone sales. Apple wins either way since they get the customer now and probably in the future.
In addition anyone who needs the always connectedness of an iPhone is not going to be satisfied with an iPod Touch alone and the necessity of finding or carrying a wifi hot spot.
Posted by Pamp Lona at August 13th, 2009 at 7:37 pm> I don’t expect a Tablet to
> be unveiled at this event.
> It would steal the thunder
> from the iPods.
The tablet *is* an iPod. Tablet thunder *is* iPod thunder. If the tablet is released at this year’s iPod event it will *create* iPod thunder. In fact, I think this big iPod will be the first true “video iPod”, it will be as good a video player as the iPod has always been for music. What we have now on the 3.5-inch devices is awesome but it’s not what you would make if you set out to make the perfect portable video player. You’d do it at 10-inch so it is still very portable but yet can really show you the movie.
A lot of people are saying things like “tablets have always failed … can Apple finally make it work?” That analysis is 2-3 years out of date. The iPhone and iPod touch are most certainly tablets and most certainly successful. They’re just surprisingly small. But bigger ones are like falling downhill. It’s shrinking stuff that is truly hard.
Once the big iPod is here, I think it will seem so obvious in retrospect. Why even make video iPods with built-in computers if you’re going to stop at 3.5-inch displays? Why make video iPods that stop at SD resolution when you’re selling HD movies in iTunes? Why render Web pages at 980 pixels width and zoom them to 320 pixels width (as happens on iPhone and iPod touch) and not make a device that has 980 pixels native resolution so you can show that same Web page render you’re already making now but at full-size?
Note that the effective width of the Web is 980 pixels, that most of the world’s computer software can function in 980 pixels wide (a little smaller than a 1024×760 screen), and that the middle HD size (the first one that’s bigger than SD enough to be worth using) is 960 pixels wide. So a 10-inch device with about 980 pixels of horizontal resolution could run the full-size Web, full-size desktop app interfaces (ported to touch), and HD movies that turn heads. It could replace a lot of PC’s that are in use today.
Me, I think the traditional Mac/PC is going back to being a production tool, something you only use at work, and the consumer computer is being redefined right now by the iPhone and iPod touch, but in a stealthy way because only the little ones are out yet. Once there is one with a full-size display it will fit the needs of the typical person much better than any PC or even Mac. The Mac is much simpler than the PC, and much more powerful, but it’s not simpler than a big iPod and simpler is so important for most cases.
Posted by Fred Hamranhansenhansen at August 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm