Steve Jobs To Keynote WWDC iPhone Announcement 484
Stoobalou writes "Apple's worst-kept secret will be revealed on June 7. A press release from Apple HQ has made it almost certain that the company will announce the new iPhone 4G on June 7, in our opinion, at least. The missive from Cupertino simply states that Steve Jobs will kick off the Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 with a keynote address. The thing is, Apple's enigmatic frontman doesn't turn up to these geeky WWDC shindigs unless he has something to announce that will get the hyped-up gang of Apple fanboys and girls a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'."
Article biased much? (Score:5, Interesting)
Normally Steve is there for the keynote address which lasts a few hours. The rest of the conference lasts 4 1/2 more days. And most of it is geared specifically for developers. The press really only shows up for the keynote and ignores the rest of it.
something else to expect too (Score:3, Interesting)
There will be some made-up with no real world significance benchmark or statistics how iPhone OS is superior to Android.
Ex. Mac mini now 5x faster in graphic than previous generaiton with intel onboard graphics.
At least fans will believe it.
No surprise at all ? (Score:2, Interesting)
No surprise this year. Jobs himself: check. New iPhone model: check. New firmware version: check. All is "déjà vu" ! The only possible surprise would be "OS4 for iPhone2G" (they said "no !"; now they should say "yes !").
Apples biggest problem with Android is (Score:5, Interesting)
The next year will be the "year of android" but Apple needs to tee up a home run next year (Unless there are unannounced features for the 4th generation iPhone).
Hopefully the iPhone will see some sort of "Services" architecture like Android's SDK - as a developer that is the real "Multitasking" that needs to take place.
Re:Whoop! Whoop! Holler! Holler! (Score:4, Interesting)
The million dollar 'best kept secret' is if there will be a Verizon version. AT&T just jacked up the prices for early termination. They think they bought themselves a lifeline with the 6 month extension with the iPad deal.
Back in the day the carrier held all the cards. AT&T wanted a multi-year agreement just to even carry the iPhone. Now Apple is in good enough of a position to say "Hey, so we want some kickass prices on iPad data plans, what will you offer." And all AT&T got out of it was a 6 month extension? Unless they signed some air tight confidentiality agreement all Apple has to say is "yeah, this is an LTE/WiMax phone" and it's more or less a given that it'll be available for Verizon and/or Sprint.
Re:Great. :( (Score:4, Interesting)
The article you're referring to can be found here [tweakers.net] (Dutch text, but the attached image / graph is in English).
It's data from 2008 and shows that RIM and Apple together have about 3% of the market share, yet make 35% of all the profits in that market.
Even more telling is mobile data usage, which exploded since the release of the iPhone.
Re:Great. :( (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple is, iPhone isn't (Score:3, Interesting)
HOWEVER, from a simple political perspective, the iPhone is just WRONG. They way it's locked down is repulsive to many on a site that is heavily frequented by people involved in a movement (OSS) that stipulates that users should have absolute control over their systems.
THEN FUCKING JAILBREAK IT.
Welcome to the future. Or actually the past, since we have already been down this road (HA!) with cars. Average users have a locked down device that basically works pretty well and they don't really maintain. Technical users can, and will enhance and expand the system to do WHATEVER they want since they have the ability and the understanding to do so. It doesn't matter what the COMPANY supports, it matters what you can do with a device after. And with an iPhone, you can do anything. In fact for "lazy" technical users there is a very good third option where you don't jailbreak the phone, but you get a developer account - that lets you run almost anything you like, for instance tethering apps, on your own phone.
In short, your beef is with Apple and the policies they set - not the iPhone.
However, it should not be. Let the users have SOME option that is locked down so well they cannot easily screw it up. Stop trying to make every technical device on the planet so flexible out of the box that every person not only has enough rope to hang themselves, it's a guarantee.
I sincerely hope you're not a CEO (Score:5, Interesting)
Why am I not shocked?
You and many others believe that because Apple has such a small market share they must somehow be unsuccessful, and that they "lost" the PC war. Microsoft's almost complete dominance of the desktop has changed the definition of "success" in the eyes of the public at large, especially in the tech industry. Their monopoly turned the focus on market share, and most people have come to accept it is the critical metric for a company's success or failure. I'm constantly surprised how the mainstream media and many otherwise intelligent people subscribe to the misconception that if a company hasn't achieved total market domination they've "lost", never mind the fact they're profitable.
And Apple has proven to be astonishingly profitable. Revenue and profits (yes, the things that people who run companies do know about) are setting new records every quarter, and in terms of market capitalization, they recently leapfrogged Wal-Mart as the third most valuable company in the US, behind only Microsoft and Exxon Mobil. Based on Microsoft's flat share price and the anticipated leap in Apple's following the release of the 4th generation iPhone, as well as continued strong demand for iPhones and iPads, many analysts expect Apple to overtake Microsoft as the second most valuable American company sometime this summer, and Morgan Stanley today raised their target price for Apple stock to $310 USD, based on their expectation that Apple will sell 61.5 million iPhones in 2011.
Looks like the "PC war" was only a battle after all, and the true war, the war for mobile Internet, is only just beginning. Apple is again one of the giants jostling for position in this one, but the other contender is Google, and this time Microsoft is watching from the sidelines. Microsoft saw this coming and couldn't do anything about it; they don't have a dog in the mobile fight and they're watching the next great business frontier passing them by and receding in the distance. The vast majority of the world's users will not connect to the Web with a desktop or a laptop computer, but via a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet, and the market will be vastly larger than the PC market. That translates to hundreds of millions, or billions, of eyeballs for ads, credit card numbers, customer profiles etc., and Google is terrified that Apple's dramatically growing influence in mobile, including the App Store model and the iAd platform will pose a critical threat to their core business. People have commented that the rivalry between Apple and Google is rapidly turning into open war, and they're right. Make no mistake, Google sees themselves in a fight for survival, and Microsoft seems so irrelevant now.
I believe that if Apple continues to fire on all cylinders and their plans come to fruition, then Apple has a damned good shot at becoming the most valuable and profitable company on the planet within the next 2 years. Not bad for the loser of the PC war.
Re:Great. :( (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes! Bang on. I have to say, I'm really grateful to the people who've put so much into FOSS, but after 10 years I'm right with you. I replaced my Ubuntu desktop and laptop with a Mac Mini 2 years ago, and since then I've upgraded twice and now have a MacBook Pro for me, MacBook for my wife, an iPhone each with calendar syncing between the 4 devices, and I'm really happy. It all works great, I've so far never had a breakage after running software update, and I actually enjoy using a computer again.
I'm just about to put an order in to replace my MythTV setup (backend in the outhouse, frontend in the living room) with a Sky+ HD hardware DVR. Every upgrade of Ubuntu breaks something, and MythTV still has random breakage. I never thought I would have a fully closed/proprietary setup, but in all honesty I don't have the time to spend my saturdays messing around with stuff any more. If there was a polished and rock solid semi-proprietary turnkey MythTV setup available I'd go for it, but I don't think there is.
Re:All that negativity about the IPhone (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a good phone, but it's not made for tinkering with, which is going to prompt a lot of hate on a site whose primary demographic is people who love to tinker with things.
As an iPhone developer I'm very happy with Apple's walled garden, but maybe this is because my 9-5 is game development, where all the biggest platforms are walled gardens. I get an industry standard cut of the profits, there's a minimum of casual piracy of my work, the development environment is first rate and extremely cheap ($100! Mind-bogglingly cheap to someone who comes from an industry where engine licenses run in the low millions, and the standard 3D modeling package is $3500), and the hardware platform is standardized enough to make it easy to work with.
I can't imagine trying to develop for Android, where the hardware is going to be all over the place. That's all well and good for beefy PCs, but for an embedded system? How could you possibly optimize sufficiently for a multi-target mobile platform and still turn software around quickly enough to be profitable?
Ultimately people's preferences are going to reflect how and why they use their phones, and for developers it will reflect their target demographic. Slashdot will never love the iPhone because it isn't *for* them, which suggests that they aren't the most important people out there - and that's a message nobody likes to receive.
--Ryvar
Re:Apple is, iPhone isn't (Score:3, Interesting)
That's a federal crime, and there's no guarantee that will be possible in the future.
Yes, just like Android.
Which Android does. You can use it like an iPhone and it will work fine; you never need to be aware of the options to run non-market apps or install custom ROMs.
Re:Great. :( (Score:5, Interesting)
>I just want them to work, and stay the hell out of my way when they do so.
I just want flash to work. I just want apps that have been rejected for adult content. I just want tethering.
See how that works? Its not working for me. In fact, Apple is going of its way to make it not work for me. I'm so sick of the "it just works" marketing speak. Its simply not true.