OK folks, the invites from Apple’s PR team were sent out today. The essential text reads:
1000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.
So you can bet that between now and that day, the rumor sites are going to be on overdrive, trying to second-guess His Jobsness and figure out what the big surprise is going to be.
People will doubtless be placing money on some kind of video device, a videopod that does for film and TV what the iPod did for music. That would be the kind of thing to ‘change everything’ again, wouldn’t it? Especially if it had some kind of direct link to an iTunes Music Store-style service for the downloading and purchasing of video content.
What other ideas could change everything again? An iTunes phone, or combination phone and iPod device, might be interesting, especially if it could connect directly to the iTunes Music Store and download songs without the need for a computer.
Or might we see a radically different handheld device, one that’s more like a computer than a player of files? Something that runs OS X and can be used for all manner of mobile computing functions, music and video included.
I’m inclined to suspect it’ll be some kind of video tablet device. But heaven forbid I should ever indulge in groundless speculation. That’s not like me at all.
Sooooo, whaddya think it’ll be, huh?
Sadly, it's the phone
Given the timing, within the 66 days since their last announcement, my guess is this will simply be the phone. Combine that with the recent FCC filing for the device & it's the likely candidate.
Jobs has mentioned that they had handheld prototypes in the past but decided against bringing them to market since the PDA market is a shrinking environment. Palm is down 70% in unit sales over the past 5 years & Apple technically created the market with the Newton, so I don't think that's likely.
Right now, the best portable video device is the Sony PSP. If you look at the size of that device, you'll notice that you can't get any smaller & have a useful screen for video, so videopod is out, plus it's a limited market for now as who needs their movies with them? Portable DVD players have been out for years and nobody has been clamoring to get them.
If Apple really goes for the video market, my guess is they would go for something closer to the Tivo, meaning home use. They could have a video store similar to iTunes from which you could buy movies, but I think rentals would be more likely an option. I think most people listen to the same song more often than watch the same movie. Given Tivo's abandonment of development for the Mac, this would be a shot in the arm to the DVR market & help legitimize the video download market. Especially with their push with h.264 this seems likely. This would also better match their past pattern of software before hardware, like iTunes predated the iPod. They could then release a dedicated device like the Tivo for hookup to your TV.
But those future possibilities aside, I still believe the announcement on 9/7 will be the phone. The media event is a much lower-key environment than others & was used back in 2001 since they didn't know how well received the iPod would be. The likely venue for something bigger is the Apple Expo Paris which runs later in September. In the past, several products were announced at that show, including the iMac G5, the aluminum PowerBook 15", iCal and the firewire iBook back in 2000.
iPod noggin
The new device will be the iPod noggin, a brain-implantable player to be marketed under the slogan, "1 BILLION songs in your head."
"Oh man, I can't get this song out of my head!"
"Hey, just re-sync with iTunes, dude!"
"Thanks, man!"
The "halo effect" will become stronger than ever, as iPod noggin owners feel an inexplicable and irresistible urge to drop thousands on PowerMacs and Cinema Displays.
And if I'm wrong about that...my second guess is some sort of music playing phone.
I have heard women get $ 50 to register?
Hi
I have heard a rumor that woman who register in the free web site Http://www.adultclickfinder.com
and will be there at least 3 months once a week will get $50
I will go to check
Jin