Steve Jobs, new iPhone coming in late June – analyst
Reading between the lines of an Apple (AAPL) press release issued early Wednesday, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster believes the company has lined up two important events for the end of June: The return of CEO Steve Jobs and the unveiling of the next generation iPhone.
What Apple announced was that the keynote address for this year's World Wide Developers Conference will be delivered by marketing vice president Phil Schiller on June 8 and will focus not on new hardware but on software that Apple has been talking about for months: iPhone 3.0 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
In fact, Snow Leopard was introduced by a shockingly gaunt Steve Jobs at last year's WWDC keynote; it was his appearance at that event that first raised questions about his health.
Jobs is half-way through the fifth month of a six-month medical leave, and the announcement that Schiller will be delivering this year's keynote in his place seems to have put an end to speculation that he might be come back a few weeks early.
"Although this may raise some concern among investors that Steve Jobs will not return [at all]," wrote Munster, "we continue to expect his return to the company by the end of June."
Munster points out that for Jobs to deliver a keynote address in less than a month, he would have had to have begun preparation well before his intended return date. The analyst believes Jobs may return to Apple with a reduced role, possibly as chairman, with COO Tim Cook assuming the CEO position.
Munster also sought to reassure investors who had hoped that the successor to the iPhone 3G might be unveiled at the June 8 keynote. Instead, he expects Apple to schedule a second event, jam-packed with news:
"We expect Apple to host a special event in late June or early July to launch a family of iPhones. We continue to expect multiple models, possibly a high-end iPhone with improved specs from the current version and a low-end version with lower capacity and fewer features along with a reduced pricing plan. Such a model could also be used in Apple's launch of the iPhone into China as soon as the end of summer '09.
Apple shares fell 3.97% Tuesday in advance of any significant company news and another 3.96% after the news on Wednesday.
This year's WWDC runs from June 8 – 12 and will be held, as usual, in San Francisco's Moscone Center. Thanks to intense developer interest in both the iPhone and the new Mac OS, this year's event sold out in record time.
i have just purchased a new iphone about two months ago. its bullshit if they come out with a new iphone with twice the memory, better specs, and over all better iphone for the same price. i will be calling at@t and rasing hell.
One big question I have is, will us iPhone users now be able to trade in our iPhones for credit toward the new iphones? I just purchased my iPhone back in february and apple comes out with a new iPhone with video, if course I am going to want to get that one, but I do not want to have to fork over another $200-$400 for another phone 4 months later! Think about the little guys Steve jobs!!! Were not all millionaires…
to mike @ dallas texas:
"That would be a good theory were it true, but the fact is the US cell phone market has always been even further behind than just skipping the beta phase. Every time I'd visit and go into a shop selling mobiles I'd have to chuckle to myself at the stuff they were selling which was years behind what we had even in Europe, let alone Japan.
This is why the original iPhone was a flop everywhere but the US (yes it was even a flop in Europe), people were looking at it and thinking what's the big deal when it's camera, it's memory, it's lack of custom apps, lack of MMS, lack of 3G, lack of GPS and so on made it a laughably poor device, whilst in the US it was pretty state of the art.
Move forward to the iPhone 3G and Apple have realise their mistakes and have moved forward a bit, but as stated in the summary, the iPhone still lacks features that many in Europe and Japan have come to expect.
The US is a world leader on most things, but cell phones are one of the few products the US was simply years behind on, often never even getting some of the high end Nokia models we enjoyed in Europe For example, did the US ever even get the Nokia 7650 in the end? a phone that in 2001 had a camera, could play Doom, browse the web, run Java apps- in fact, everything the original iPhone had minus touch screen but plus a whole bunch of other features (MMS, custom apps).
Apple realised the mobile gap was in the US and took advantage of that, they couldn't compete immediately with the companies like Nokia that had been doing it years and the US gave them a place to get started without ever needing to do so. Once their foot was in the door they could fairly quickly move on with their technology to produce a phone that was a little more attractive in Europe/Japan, if they keep it up and keep going they'll do well.
At the end of the day though, the summary comes as no suprise as it really is quite similar to the story here in Europe. It's not to slag Apple off, because if the US was as uptodate on mobile technology as Europe it's questionable whether Apple could've got it's foot in the door as easily as it did and more fool Nokia et. al. for not taking the opportunity to exploit the rather backwards US cell phone market themselves. I think this is also why the iPhone has the following it does, not necessarily because it's any better than other phones outside North America- it still lacks a lot of features European and Japanese phones have, but because it's a decent mid-range phone in Europe/Japan and more importantly, because it is light years ahead of much of what the US ever really had before it."
Unless things have changed since I left the employ of AT&T in September, you have 30 days to cancel your two year agreement. However, with the iPhone, you only have 14 days to return the phone for a refund minus the 10% restocking fee. They may have extended it to 30 days like the rest of their phones, but I wouldn't chance it. I am due for a upgrade and I am holding out until after July to see if Apple does come out with a new iPhone
So I just bought a new 3G iphone a couple weeks ago with a new 2 yr commitment, if this news is true I should take it back since I am withing the 30 day period, right? When is it expected that this version 3 iphone will be released?
Who ever this person is that posted:
The iPhone is a nice idea that wasn’t and still is not ready for the market place.
Posted By mugzy : May 15, 2009 2:45 pm
Is obviously not keeping up with the news and about the product. The iPhone was and still is a huge success. The gadget is revolutionizing the way phones work – prior to the iphone, competitors would not even spend more then 1/4 their resources to create touch screen type phones, now you have the black berry storm, and all the other phones that compete with the iphone.
No iphone = no innovation by competitors and we would still have standard screens with standard qwerty keyboards.
If the iPhone was to fail today, it still would hold a big spot in technology history as becoming the leader in what we know phones as today.
If rumors are true with an upcoming iphone, apple will be placing an even higher bar for cell phones and hand helds. Who knows – one day we may do all our mobile computing from hand helds like iphones vs having laptops…
For someone to say the idea is just nice and was not ready for the market place shows that we still have people out there with closed minds. Those are the people that hold technology back – I pitty the fool that said that.
But we waiting for new apple too A new iPhone would be nice, 3G is still good but there are better alternatives now (HTC Touch Pro anyone?) and Apple need to step up their game, not to mention lower their prices, to stay ahead of the rest.
Jobs has terminal advanced stage glucagonomas (google it FFS before fanboi starting going deep indenial with the lame hackneyed "SHORT" platitude!) – unsurprising as Apple are one of the most insidious propaganda merchants in the world – the only strategy Apple could try was release news of increasing severity to soften the blow ("a common BUG" said apple PR LMFAOPMP) of the unthinkable ie. death of GOD himself of the sick + twisted cult of apple. It doesn't mean he's going to just drop down dead, just that he won't be fit enough to work for this last year or so of his life!You'll never EVER hear Apple say directly he's comming back in June – because they would be seriously SCREWED for blatantly lying! ( saying they are looking forward to him coming back is NOT a direct reply)
It was complete media/fanboi medical ignorance/urban myth that Jobs had the Whipple procedure which many "experts" (LOL) associated with his incredible weight loss – it was a much more simpler less stressful procedure with certain + full,quick recovery. The only practical diagnosis then left was cancer return (metastasis)from malignant cells spread around the body from his initial " NON-scientific method evidence supported – alternative medicine" delay of recommended immediate surgery;
"Well, this story is a bit misinformed. The variant of cancer that Mr. Jobs is believed to have had (well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (ie. pancreat islet cell tumor)), occurs most frequently in the body or tail of the pancreas (where the highest concentration of islets are). As such, the usual operation to be performed is a distal pancreatectomy. This surgery does not typically require bowel resection and has a much better recovery time than does the pancreaticoduodenectomy. The Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) is usually performed to resect a carcinoma that involves the head of the pancreas. It would be somewhat less likely for Mr. Jobs’ carcinoma to have arisen in this location.
Posted By Joe, Baltimore, MD"
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/06/13/steve-jobs-life-after-the-whipple/
Steve Jobs is having succes because he know to learn from mistakes, and has creativity because he likes philosophical books.
It’s supposably rumored that the new model iPhone may potentially include video conferencing, right? My thoughts will be a videoconference with Steve Jobs off site to introduce this revolutionary hardware/software update. Any thoughts, comments?
All iphones apps you can host on http://www.host1plus.com
Feel free and help everybody to use more and more Iphone
Great News! Still don't have an iPhone yet…waiting for AT&T to release their stronghold. When they do, I will get one…Can't wait to see this new release!
Will be back for more.
Mike Holt
Mount Rainier, MD
Will iFART wok on the new iPhones?
http://ifartmobile.com/videocontest/ifce-42-smart-dog-bobbochimp/
I hope so!
I hope Steve Jobs comes back, and I sincerely hope his health is solid. What a great visionary CEO. Let's cross our fingers.
(Love my Mac)
Chris Thompson
author of "Talking to Toddlers" audio course
Dealing with the Terrible Twos
Toronto, Canada
This is nothing but bait for shorters.
When are people going to learn? 'Analyst' sets up a false rumor and when it doesn't come to be the stock drops like a rock. How many times does this game have to be played out before people catch on?
whats wrong with this world, Apple success is not down to Jobs at all, its the whole Apple team, he hasnt been there for 6 months, has the company gone? no, i rest my case.
Rich O (UK)
Won't first-gen subsciber contracts begin to expire in June? Apple would surely want to have new models available by then.
Excellent post! I really enjoyed reading it. I will be back for more!
Sincerely,
Roy Ledford
Concho, Az.
Bold and insightful post; The authors clarity on the issue of poverty activism and truth it brings to bear on the prospects for the future give us all reason for hope. The question is: Are people ready to hear the good news yet? I for one AM!
Way to go, we' re all behind you, and were all in this together.
A couple of things here:
.
1- One reason that they will not introduce new models at WWDC (IMHO) is that with IPh 3.0 and Snow Leopard, there is really a lot to cover. (Besides this IS a developers conference.) I think they would not want new HW to upstage the new SW.
.
2- Re several HW models:
Apple does not want to have multiple iPhone models. They want one simple product, 2 memory versions. They do NOT want to be a cell phone maker. They want to be the iPhone maker.
.
That said, while Apple can lead the market into new realms with their creativity and design, reality does not always bend itself to their will. Especially given the fact that in the huge India and China markets, people just cannot afford to pay the current iPhone premium, and that even in the USA the market is begging for some price relief, It seems likely that they have been forced to capitulate on this score. Therefore, I put a lot of credence in this report.
I think Gene has it right and I'm glad this is out to avoid the big disappointment when we don't see the new phones at WWDC. Steve would hate to miss the new phone intro, but the whole package couldn't wait for his return. Breaking out the software event as the first step makes perfect sense to me.
This approach also gives another chance to highlight the fact that more than just Steve will do the 'shows' in the future and that his role will likely transition a subset of very special events only.
Actually, this sounds real because it makes sense. If you recall, when the last major iPhone software update (v2.0) rolled out on Friday, July 11, 2008, it coincided with the simultaneous release of the new iPhone 3G hardware. Together, the software updates and new phone activations strained Apple servers and contributed to widespread customer service problems for Apple.
At the time, many critics commented that Apple should have staggered the release of the new hardware and software. The plan cited here (just the software update at WWDC) would divide the releases and allow Jobs to take the stage for the glitzy new hardware introductions at the later event.
Typo in my other comment, I meant why wouldn't Apple announce at WWDC this year. Like last year.
These things are easier to manage if you have history. The AT&T store needs to be primed, posters go up, etc. It's all easier if they follow a schedule similar to a prior launch. These things occur on a tight schedule, not by accident.
If we see Jobs in June it will be to announce the tablet. I wish it weren't so, but I fear he isn't well enough to return yet. No facts to back it up – it just seems that if he were doing better we'd hear about it from people who see him around town.
Nobody is perfect, but there's a lot about Jobs to admire and respect. Hoping for a full recovery.
The Return of the King!
Where's Shaw Wu when one needs him…I thought that Apple doesnt need Jobs anymore, now that hi way of thinking is already "ingrained in the Company's corporate DNA"?
It's been reported in another headline, Mr Jobs plans to build his dream house.
Translation: Either Jobs is in good shape, or he thinks so. Otherwise why building a home?
In both case, we can expect to see him back in June with all the intention to run the show.
Before Sept '09, we'll get multiple iPhone models, but also Snow Leaopard, and the tablet.
Bummer… I am iPhone-less right now. I damaged my first generation, and with the news of a new model approaching I am holding off the impulse to purchase a 3g to be outdated in a month or less.
My money…Schiller may attempt the "One more thing." signature line we've come to know from Steve Jobs. That "one more thing" could be Steve coming in form the wings of the stage. I may be wrong, but that would wake people up. My view, if Jobs does not come in at the June 8th event, Apple stock will drop, then come back up when Jobs does return. If he arrives at the June 8th event, Apple stock will likely jump up. Either way, it is coming back up. I wish I had money lying around when it was at 80'ish. I was Pavlov's dog back then. It was cruel.
That sounds random Gene. The 3G was introduced at the beginning of WWDC 2008. Up until it was actually introduced it was smoke – nothing concrete.
So why would Apple tell us this year that they have new hardware to launch?
Last year they went so far as to let iPhone inventory dry up completely, without commenting on it !
It's pretty hard to see any basis in what Munster is saying.
I called AT&T and they said if I just purchased the phone to take it back to the store and I could get $100 refund. I purchased it May 25th from Wal-mart. Wal-mart said they have a 15 day return. I was able to get the refund because today was day 15.