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Why wouldn't Apple announce new iPhone hardware on March 17th?

I

iansilv

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
1,101
411
I was thinking about this- why would Apple not talk about the next generation iPhone? I know that Apple's policy has always been secrecy, but I think that a new product announcement right now ahead of time by a few months could serve them well.

Here are my reasons why they would talk about hardware as well as software on the 17th:

1. Right now is the lightest time of the year for things like cell phone sales- why not make it lighter by making more people save their money for the upcoming iphone pro- or whatever it will be called and in the process hurt their competition even more?

2. Business cell phones can be bought at any time but they are infrequent purchases- with the Palm Pre and the Blackberry storm looking like potential alternatives to business users, announcing something with improvements that might appeal to the business user group might hold off their purchases for a new iphone.

3. If they are negotiating with anyone- drumming up buzz for a new phone now would help that negotiation. The list of hardware revisions rumored is a higher resolution screen, front facing camera for video chat, keyboard maybe... who knows- what ever the improvements are they will make mainstream news. Maybe they are trying to get Verizon to concede a contract term, or ATT to allow video chatting on their 3g network- whatever negotiations they would be in, public opinion and knowledge of the new upcoming hardware could help Apple.

4. iPhone 3g sales are through the roof- they have sold plenty of them and have an incredible market share. Disrupting that now with the knowledge of a new phone on the horizon, in this economy, might not be such a bad thing. They could stop their orders for new 3gs, and focus on building a huge momentum to the new iphone. And- they would not have to deal with the "I bough this last week and now there is a new one" people...

Thoughts anyone?
 
When did Schiller say that they specifically would not talk about new hardware until June? And more specifically, when did he say that they would not talk about new iPhone hardware until June?
 
I don't understand. All reasons that you listed lead to a common place; people waiting and not buying an iPhone until the new iPhone comes out. I just fail to see how not selling any iPhones for the next 3 months is a good thing. That's a pile of potential cash not being made.
 
iansilv said:
When did Schiller say that they specifically would not talk about new hardware until June? And more specifically, when did he say that they would not talk about new iPhone hardware until June?
Click to expand...

Right after MacWorld, I believe, in response to why they were leaving MacWorld. He said that it didn't jive with their cycles, and proceeded to list them off.

He said nothing about talking about it because...

I don't even need to say why, really. Do you know why this website exists?
 
kas23 said:
I don't understand. All reasons that you listed lead to a common place; people waiting and not buying an iPhone until the new iPhone comes out. I just fail to see how not selling any iPhones for the next 3 months is a good thing. That's a pile of potential cash not being made.
Click to expand...

Because the in this economy, sales are sluggish anyway for consumer electronics. So it might be advantageous for Apple really hit their competition hard in advance by making people wait to buy the new one.

The potential cash to be made might be outweighed by the desire to thwart their competition.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Right after MacWorld, I believe, in response to why they were leaving MacWorld. He said that it didn't jive with their cycles, and proceeded to list them off.

He said nothing about talking about it because...

I don't even need to say why, really. Do you know why this website exists?
Click to expand...

OK- right- that's the same thing I read. But he did not say specifically that they would not talk about it sooner. It's not outside the realm of speculation that they could talk about new iphone hardware on the 17th.

Besides- how could they not i they talk about new software?
 
Why WOULD they announce hardware? First, this is a developer event. They have no reason to muddy up the agenda by announcing hardware. Second, they announce new hardware in JUNE. They keep selling the existing models until then. That's their business model, and it works. They have no reason whatsoever to go against that.
 
redman042 said:
Why WOULD they announce hardware? First, this is a developer event. They have no reason to muddy up the agenda by announcing hardware. Second, they announce new hardware in JUNE. They keep selling the existing models until then. That's their business model, and it works. They have no reason whatsoever to go against that.
Click to expand...

they just announced new hardware a week ago...
 
redman042 said:
Why WOULD they announce hardware? First, this is a developer event. They have no reason to muddy up the agenda by announcing hardware. Second, they announce new hardware in JUNE. They keep selling the existing models until then. That's their business model, and it works. They have no reason whatsoever to go against that.
Click to expand...

Also- they announced the original iPhone at Macworld. There is no established pattern for hardware announcements in June- it's just one annual cycle you cna base that on.

Also- if it is a developer conference, I would think it would be important to let developers know what is coming out for their development.
 
iansilv said:
Because the in this economy, sales are sluggish anyway for consumer electronics. So it might be advantageous for Apple really hit their competition hard in advance by making people wait to buy the new one.

The potential cash to be made might be outweighed by the desire to thwart their competition.
Click to expand...

Even if they announced a new iPhone in a few days, the majority of people who buy cellphones wouldn't even take notice. That is, the average customer doesn't follow stuff like this - only we do. Most people just wander into the cellphone store when their contract is up and buy whatever the salesman tells them too. The AT&T salesman certainly is not going to tell them to wait.

Besides, Apple wants your money/business. Every passing day you do not buy an iPhone is a chance you could possibly buy a competitors product.

Apple has the hype now and Apple has felt any sluggishness in iPhone sales. And Apple is going to have the hype later in June - the media ensures this.
 
iansilv said:
they just announced new hardware a week ago...
Click to expand...

Having... NOTHING to do with developers OR the iPhone...:confused:

iansilv said:
Also- they announced the original iPhone at Macworld.
Click to expand...

Because they weren't selling an iPhone already. They could announce it earlier because... what were you going to do, NOT buy the current iPhone? Oh, wait, there wasn't one.

They announced the original six months early because it made people not buy their COMPETITIORS' products, not their own.
 
iansilv said:
Also- they announced the original iPhone at Macworld. There is no established pattern for hardware announcements in June- it's just one annual cycle you cna base that on.
Click to expand...

Believe him or not, established or not, their head of Marketing told us that June is the iPhone product cycle.
 
They're clearly not going to tell us much about the hardware, but I think they'll let a few details slip out on purpose.

For example, let's say they enable multi-tasking applications. I could imagine them saying something like "based on the amount of RAM they have, the first generation and 3G iPhones will be able to run 4 programs at the same time. Future hardware will support 8 programs at once."

I mean, I made that up, but you get the point. I think they'll intentionally reveal a few tid-bits like that without actually telling us all the details about the next phone.
 
Small White Car said:
They're clearly not going to tell us much about the hardware, but I think they'll let a few details slip out on purpose.

For example, let's say they enable multi-tasking applications. I could imagine them saying something like "based on the amount of RAM they have, the first generation and 3G iPhones will be able to run 4 programs at the same time. Future hardware will support 8 programs at once."

I mean, I made that up, but you get the point. I think they'll intentionally reveal a few tid-bits like that without actually telling us all the details about the next phone.
Click to expand...

I could see them doing that. I was also thinking- "With he new software we support higher resolution icons for the new iphone's higher resolution screen..
 
They probably will announce the new Hardware for June. We don't know.
They can say this Os will be included in the new iphone and our new netbook or whatever.
 
To sell out product in the channel.

They prob. slowed or will halt current 3G model production in April and coast till June.
 
Because they won't. It would kill sales of the iPhone until the next revision is released. Now, however, if they say that iPhone 3.0 will be released sooner than WWDC then they might have new hardware to go along with it. But I doubt that'll be the case.
 
Steve will make his return in June. He will be the one introducing the new iPhone. Like a grand reappearance almost. Twice to talk about, twice the media talk.


Then expect the iPhone to be sold a few weeks later. Its more than likely going to be in the July timeframe.
 
...because it's going to be released on the March 24th event?...slowly backs out of room

Nah but really, I think, as a poster just posted above, that we could see a few details slip out about any new hardware just over the horizon (June). The developers will be working with a new SDK and some of that may be for a more powerful, more developed device coming soon. Now will they be able to talk about it? Who knows? My best advice would be to find your nearest developer and buddy up and get your ass in there so you can seed it out to us, whatever comes up! :D
 
nickspohn said:
Steve will make his return in June. He will be the one introducing the new iPhone. Like a grand reappearance almost. Twice to talk about, twice the media talk.


Then expect the iPhone to be sold a few weeks later. Its more than likely going to be in the July timeframe.
Click to expand...

I think this is the most likely scenario and I hope it comes true. Or ya know, there's that fabled wish of him hitting the presenter up with a video chat call from his hospital bed during the conference...ok, ok, well,...we'll just wait and see. :D
 
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