Well, it’s official: some of us were hoping that Apple was just dragging its feet, letting IDG sweat, and waiting to announce that Steve Jobs would indeed keynote Macworld CreativePro in New York. Yesterday, Apple announced that instead VP of Hardware Product Marketing Greg Joswiak would perform the honors — meaning I guess we won’t have to wake up too early Tuesday morning to stand in line. Meanwhile, WWDC will get a Stevenote, and it may even be webcast. What’s it all mean? (Read more)
Well, it’s official: some of us were hoping that Apple was just dragging its feet, letting IDG sweat, and waiting to announce that Steve Jobs would indeed keynote Macworld CreativePro in New York. Yesterday, Apple announced that instead VP of Hardware Product Marketing Greg Joswiak would perform the honors — meaning I guess we won’t have to wake up too early Tuesday morning to stand in line. Meanwhile, WWDC will get a Stevenote, and it may even be webcast. What’s it all mean?
MacRumors has its own roundup of every rumor from everywhere, but it’s not too hard to do a little figuring on your own:
Scenario 1: Apple has found a way to genetically engineer a hybrid of Steve Wosniak and Steve Jobs, called “Greg” just to throw anti-genetic-engineering activists off the scent. This was my immediate first reaction, and I was pleased that As the Apple Turns had the same impulse: clearly, we share the same twisted — er, journalistic sensibility.
Scenario 2: Nothing new will get announced, ever again. Rumor sites, being fickle as they are, are now back to the old “Nothing new is being announced” predictions alongside the opposite extreme, “G5 Machines are Shipping TODAY!” With Macworld Expo now relegated to someone not even on Apple’s Executive Team, it certainly seems WWDC is the more likely candidate for any announcement. We’ll at least get 10.3 Panther, which given Apple’s ambitious pace of OS X development could be a very major announcement, so I’m not griping. Some of us will be most happy if Apple just makes iChat and iSync work right — and having just suffered through moving some OS X user data around the “user-centric” approach predicted by eWeek would be welcome, too. Just don’t expect themes, and pray that Apple doesn’t make any other elements of the UI metallic — enough already!
Scenario 3: Something big is coming. Apple’s already had a huge year so far, with new PowerBooks, new software, and the iTunes Music Store. But that doesn’t mean it can’t give us some summer blockbusters, too. I’m surprised no one has noticed Apple is sending a hardware VP. Sure, hardware means profits, so it could just be designed to get us “Creative Pros” to shell out some cash for Apple’s existing product line. But what if Apple gave Mr. Joswiak a little something new to show off? At least a 15″ PowerBook seems like a possibility.
And let’s look back for a moment at WWDC — keeping in mind Apple’s trying to downplay Macworld. I don’t think getting shipping 64-bit PowerPC 970 systems is nearly as important as getting developers onboard optimizing their software for the new chip. Even if Power Mac G5 machines are a ways off, it’s essential that Apple rally developers around the new chip, so a lot of people will be surprised if there isn’t any processor talk at WWDC. The folks at eWeek claimed last week that hardware will arrive before the OS. So imagine this scenario: Jobs shows 10.3 and the 970 next week, with Joswiak giving us unwashed masses a peak and rehashing the speech at the Javits Center.
You will be able to watch a satellite broadcast of the WWDC Stevenote, according to MacMinute, and we’re hoping for an Apple Store broadcast and/or web broadcast. Stay tuned: it looks like WWDC will be the don’t-miss feature of the summer.
