Alright, dear readers, you know the drill: proceed with caution. We have no confirmation here, but sometimes a tip is too juicy
not to share, no matter how suspect it might be. A reader is reporting to us that a coworker's tech-unsavvy friend, who is regularly hired by Apple to do marketing photo shoots, was recently brought on to take some shots of "the sleekest, sexiest damn phone he's ever seen." The launch date? "Some time in August." Yeah, not a typo -- August. Now, to be perfectly clear, we don't know what the
iPhone (if it exists) will be actually called, we've never seen a real pic of the elusive beast, and this doesn't really jive with the time frame suggested by Peter Oppenheimer's
recent comments -- but we
want to believe, and we don't have to wait very long for this one to get debunked or confirmed.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim @ Jul 29th 2006 3:23PM
Too much speculation. The quote on quote "iPhone" has been rumored for far too long. And now add this to the even more speculation about the possibility of incorporating the Intel Core 2 duo's into the new Macs. Not to mention the supposid roumor of the revamping of the Macbook Pro, to make it look more like the Macbooks, with the magnetic latch. . . etc. You get the idea. Mearly rumors.
Ill believe it when I see it. Don't want to get my hopes up.
PS: first post
-_- @ Jul 29th 2006 7:04PM
congrats on getting first post, tim (lucky).
even if an "iphone" ever did come into existence, i wouldn't even consider it unless it had a wm5 killer os. if it did, then i could justify buying it ('cause you know apple's gonna jack up the price tag on that sucker).
"add this to the even more speculation about the possibility of incorporating the Intel Core 2 duo's into the new Macs"
uh, that's not speculation; apple's been planning for a while to use intel's amd 4x4 killer.
here's a thought, which marketing strategy is more effective:
1. leaking proto shots and data about a phone to hype the unknown release of it, or
2. running the rumor mill into the ground WAY before you even plan on doing anything, and hyping up the product by being wiley and vague about any details given (if any at all) while still promising you're doing something?
or, in real life, which has generated more buzz, the gsm treo release, or the iphone (speculative) release?
Christopher Price @ Jul 29th 2006 9:54PM
Example 1: My boss' girlfriend heard from someone who knows a guy at Nike that Apple is working on an Apple Shoe.
Example 2: My buddy on the street that knows everyone says that Apple is working with Motorola on a phone.
Bottomline; if you don't want to be called a rumormonger in this business... don't rely on non-direct sources. Both those situations probably did happen, and generated rumors that were way off base from Apple's Nike iPod integration, and Motorola's iTunes phone.
And both were described as such on rumor sites. No offense, but come on, you don't have a chance in this business without collaboration on reports.
Beanie @ Jul 30th 2006 1:00AM
Apple doesn't hire directly to do photo shoots, that is all managed by Chiat on Apple's behalf. So.. this is so far fetched, I can't believe it made it to Engadget.
Vincent @ Jul 30th 2006 7:27AM
Sorry, mostly crossposted from Engadget's main site:
Personally, I can't see why so many people think an "iPhone" would be a regular cell phone. I don't see Apple making a phone just for the US market (that means no MNVO), and I can't see them marketing handsets direct to the consumer (ala. SonyEricsson). It seems more likely to me that Apple will announce a VoIP enabled smart device, maybe something like a media-centric analogue of the Nokia 7710 that will ship with a built-in VoIP client that runs over a WiFi connection. I could imagine that the service would be further Apple branded with direct tie-ins with hot-spot providers for telephony on the go. Give it a VoiP to POTS bridge, with a nominal fee, and you might just have a winner.
Keep in mind, that Apple and Softbank announced a "mobile lifestyles" collaboration this last April, after Softbank took over Vodafone's Japanese subsidiary. Softbank runs one of the major ISPs in Japan, and is rapidly building out their public WiFi network. They also have an IP-phone service that works well, and have expressed an interest of creating a deeper synergy between their phone and internet business units. Which might make them a roll-out partner.
This gives apple the entry into the mobile space with out having to rely on they type of big-corporate partner (read verizon) that is unlikely to "get" their products. It also allows Apple to take a nascent technology (mobile VoiP) and define it with that special Apple goodness, like they did with the iPod / iTunes/ iTunes Music Store.
Of course, that is just my personal take on it, and undoubtedly Apple would do a more clever job of it than I could imagine. Nevertheless, if Apple released a device with that type of mobile VoIP functinality, that also added in iTunes, a web browser, and email client (sort of a roaming iLife suite), I would seriously consider buying it.