What has Apple done to deserve such tremendous hype heading up to a new product announcement? Absolutely zilch squat. Earlier in the year, Apple announced iOS 5 would arrive in the fall and sport a bunch of new features. What’s happened since then?
The Frenetic Frenzy Of PR
Apple then announced an iPhone event. What else? Nothing. The Apple-inspired rumor mill did the rest, churning out and regurgitating story after story ad nauseam about Apple’s next generation iPhone.
It’s to be an iPhone 5. Then, it’s only an iPhone 4S. Then, it’s both. Or, maybe a third model. What new features? Bigger screen. Better battery. Lighter. Same price. Faster processor. And, voice control. And iOS 5 with some kind of assistant to further put the kibosh on Google’s weakening stature in mobile search.
What else? No new iPad 3. No new iPod touch. In fact, no new iPods at all. In fact, the iPod may be an after thought with changes to the line, but no spot in the iPhone show. Say goodbye to the iPod Classic.
What else? Steve Jobs will be on hand for the presentation. Then, depending on the story you read, he won’t be there. Regardless, it’s a Tim Cook show. My view of a Jobs being at the show is simple. If he’s feeling better and looking better, he’ll be there. If he’s feeling worse and looks like death warmed over, he won’t be there. The former is a good sign. The latter is not.
What did Apple do to generate all this buzz? Diddly zilch squat. What a great PR machine.
My Predictions (hours before the event)
I’ve read everyone else’s predictions. Some seem reasonable. Others are far fetched. Many are contradictory. Here’s my view:
Two iPhones. iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. The 4S model is a slightly improved iPhone 4 at a much lower price (perhaps an 8GB model). The iPhone 5 is the latest and greatest; faster, better camera, better microphone, built-in voice control and search assistant, same price but more memory (RAM and storage: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB); improved in every sense.
Apple will devote lots of time on iOS 5, especially the built-in assistant, voice control, iCloud (and what becomes of our MobileMe accounts) and all the cool integration (Facebook and Twitter).
That’s a wrap.
It’s an event called Let’s Talk iPhone. That’s why there’ll be nothing on stage about the iPod. It’s old news already (though an iPod touch with Skype and FaceTime would be nice; maybe we’ll see that on the Apple Store later in the day). The iPad still has no competition, so nothing new to report. Apple will save the next iPad news for January or March.
Did I forget to mention Sprint? Sprint with an iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 and all you can eat bandwidth for one lower-than-the-competition monthly price tag might save them from a slow but certain death.
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