Apple announces September 12 media event

http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/09/04/apple-announces-special-event-for-september-12/

by twoodfin • 14 years ago

65 56 14 years ago

twoodfin• 14 years ago

Not at all surprised that it's going to be the "iPhone 5". Apple accepts that two-year contracts mean there's going to be an ebb and flow to their phone sales, and thus it's worth making as big a "bang" as possible for each new device, even at the expense of having buyers delay their purchase waiting on the new release.

But the iPad doesn't have a contract, and they'd prefer the average consumer not sit around waiting for the "new" iPad any more than they'd wait around for the "new" Macbook. Obviously some consumers are going to go to the Mac Rumors buying guide, but not many. By not hanging a big number on the brand, they mitigate the "I'll wait for N+1" mentality and hopefully spread out sales into the months post-release when their margins improve.

cwe2• 14 years ago

I was thinking it could (also) be an allusion to 5 complete years of the iPhone.

epo2• 14 years ago

Try again! It is going to be the announcement of 5 new lawsuits against Samsung which will be left as a shadow of its former self.

spicyj• 14 years ago

It can't really be by years:

1: iPhone (2G)

2: iPhone 3G

3: iPhone 3GS

4: iPhone 4

5: iPhone 4S

6: iPhone 5?

jsz0• 14 years ago

It may be that since many people continue to refer to the 'new iPad' as the iPad 3 they decided it just doesn't stick so why bother?

mikek• 14 years ago

Also - there is only 1 current version of the iPhone available at any time. Compare this to the iPad (Regular vs. Mini), iPod (Touch, Nano, Shuffle), Macbook (Air, Pro).

megablast• 14 years ago

I know they still sell the iPhone 4 and 4s, and think they may even still sell the 3gs.

untog• 14 years ago

Not true- they still sell the iPhone 4 as a cut-price version of the 4S. And they sold the 3GS when the 4 was the top model. Expect them to do the same- sell the 4S alongside the 5.

colmvp• 14 years ago

Worst kept secret ever.

1qaz2wsx3edc• 14 years ago

Best hype machine ever.

moystard2• 14 years ago

Samsung lawyers are watching that with attention, waiting for the word LTE to come up.

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/30/samsung-if-apple-releas...

epo2• 14 years ago

"Samsung, start your photocopiers."

kemiller• 14 years ago

Those are most likely standards-essential patents, no? In which case they can't use them to block sales, in theory. IANAL so this is an honest question.

pooriaazimi3• 14 years ago

(from the article)

> "[Samsung] decid[ed] not to go after Apple’s less popular LTE-enabled iPad device. The “hit them where it hurts” approach."

Yeah. iPad has such a small marketshare and generates so little revenue for Apple that it's not worth going after. Right.

jarek• 14 years ago

I think the idea would be that relatively few of iPads sold, percentage wise, are cellular/LTE, while all iPhones will be. The absolute number of devices sold probably doesn't hurt the case.

smoyer• 14 years ago

I'm waiting for Apple to invite all it's friends to an event and then just provide a nice party. "You're our friends and we wanted to treat you well" would be a nice sentiment and the perfect way to confuse people who try to predict what they'll do next.

moystard2• 14 years ago

I guess you will wait for a long time then, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

For that kind of philosophy to appear, it would mean Apple is losing market shares and needs a new strategy to attract developers and users.

Achshar• 14 years ago

Bad idea. Some people fly from different parts of country at attend such an event.

kristofferR• 14 years ago

Thank God, seems like it'll be called iPhone 5 instead of "the new iPhone".

ceejayoz• 14 years ago

I'm just waiting for the people who were absolutely certain Apple would call it the iPhone 6 to show up.

schiffern2• 14 years ago

This confuses me.

Why does anyone care? The iPod had undifferentiated names for a decade, despite dramatic changes in capabilities. Whenever there's a need for specificity (e.g. buying/selling a device online), people had no problem specifying "iPod third generation," "iPod nano second generation" etc.

jamesaguilar5• 14 years ago

I would say the only substantial change from one iPod to the next was the amount of storage and the quality of the screen. You'd never need to talk about which generation you had, because they only do one thing: play music. Meanwhile, successive iPhones have a few features that differentiate how they actually behave:

    - processor (screen smoothness, webpage performance, what games you can play)
    - camera (quality of images)
    - radio antenna type
    - OS versions supported (iPhone features often vary by OS version, unlike the features of the traditional iPod)

In conclusion, iPods only have one real feature, and it doesn't change, so you don't need to talk about version numbers. iPhones have more features that do change, so version numbers are important.

nchlswu• 14 years ago

I never understood why so many people made such a huge deal out of this.

IIRC, it was only referred to the "new iPad" in marketing materials. If Apple was focused on reducing the importance of numbers, what else would you call it in a conversation? The new or the newest ipad.

MatthewPhillips3• 14 years ago

iPhone 5 would be more confusing considering this will be the 6th generation.

arn• 14 years ago

It will be less confusing as "iPhone 5". 5 comes after 4. Most people don't know what generation it is.

arrrg3• 14 years ago

6th iPhone, arguably the 4th generation (iPhone 1, iPhone 3G and 3GS as one generation, iPhone 4 and 4S as one generation).

Naming it iPhone 6 would be extremely confusing for consumers (Where did the 5 go?!), as would 4G. The only workable alternative is iPhone 5. Anything else would be a horrible idea from a marketing point of view.

Yeah, it’s slightly inconsistent, but that’s just how it is. (Apple used the 4 both as an iPhone number – with the iPhone 4 – and like a generation number – with the iPhone 4S. That’s how they already introduced the inconsistency they now have to work around.)

Your homework: Why did Apple count iPhones and not generations when they introduced the iPhone 4? There is a pretty simple answer to that.

tsycho• 14 years ago

Is the image (12 reflecting 5) actually from Apple, or did someone else create it? I can't seem to find it anywhere on Apple's website.

glhaynes• 14 years ago

They don't put these sorts of images on apple.com afaik - they're just sent to the invitees who then spread them.

stripe• 14 years ago

Cool! Maybe Apple will also tell why they allow spyware on iOS as reported by Bloomberg? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/spyware-matching-fi...

TobbenTM• 14 years ago

They would never admit to something like that.

guywithabike• 14 years ago

Read the article. The whole article. It doesn't say what you think it says.

cdrxndr• 14 years ago

Apple-Google cross licensing agreement announcement - calling it now.

gkoberger• 14 years ago

For those that didn't notice, the shadow on the "12" forms a "5":

http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/09/04/apple-announces-specia...

Apple announces September 12 media event

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