Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

October 4: Apple's next big event; iPhone 5 expected to be unveiled

By | September 21, 2011, 4:09am PDT

Reports are circulating around the media wires this morning that Apple’s new chief executive, Tim Cook, will take to the stage and announce ’something’.

John Paczkowski with the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD network, says that Apple’s next event will be held on October 4, where it is most likely that the next-generation iPhone 5 smartphone will be unveiled.

Hedging on the side of caution, Paczkowski has long claimed through sources of his own that the launch will be in October. Sources say that the iPhone will be made available for purchase within a few weeks after the announcement.

Update: As Jason Hiner, editor-in-chief of TechRepublic, ZDNet’s sister site, points out, the Moscone Center where previous launches have been made is “booked out” for Oracle on October 4th. Apple previously used the Moscone for WWDC 2011 earlier this year. Whether this means the October 4th date is a busted flush, or it means Apple already has another venue in mind, it is yet to be known.

There has been wide speculation over the device, which is believed to have changed in screen size and dimensions. Other leaks point to a radical new design, whereas leaked device cases show that the smartphone will remain widely the same.

The truth is: Apple has done it again. We have no real idea what the next-generation iPhone will look like.

But while consumers will be looking for the new iPhone, as the highly anticipated Christmas and holiday season seller of the year, analysts and journalists will be looking at Tim Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs over the summer after he resigned from the company.

Cook will be in charge of the event, and no doubt will take to the stage as Apple’s new chief executive to announce the device. He has to be — he’s the boss. But Cook has never done this before, and will no doubt be aided by other executives to make their own announcement.

But as this may be Cook’s first presentation to the world, it has not been his first major challenge as chief executive.

Late last month, an Apple employee reportedly lost an iPhone 5 prototype in a bar in San Francisco. Bad luck struck twice, only a year after the Gawker media storm after the iPhone 4 was sold to the media company. A huge controversy began when Apple security staff alleged to have impersonated police officers when searching the suspect’s home, when the device ended up in someone else’s hands.

Though Steve Jobs continues to serve as chair of the Apple board, Tim Cook has already had a tough couple of months. Nevertheless, for consumers, the iPhone 5 will be the prime focus for the day.

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Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from CNN, the Huffington Post, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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zoopteg 43 eha
cmakrejktt83-24379044899667154945519486961566 25th Nov
uscpiw,inyxcihs04, oqryq.
0 Votes
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true, but ...
bannedfromzdnetagainandagain 21st Sep
it's true that tim cook never entirely hosted an apple event, but he has been a speaker at keynotes many times. to get an impression what the october 4 keynote will look like, have a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iJce6axaPc
tim cook hosting the event will be no big deal, no surprises here for those following the company closely, we already know he is an almost as confident, brilliant speaker as steve.
@bannedfromzdnetagainandagain
Apple stock is past 400 without Steve Jobs! They will be just fine..
No LTE and Apple will at best remain around the 27% market share level.
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At best?
ShazAmerica 21st Sep
@Peter Perry

LTE is a battery drainer. And you make it sound like 'at best' is shameful. This is a company that sells only one phone. One phone! And it has changed the world and made every other company radically change their designs.

Oh, and Microsoft has about 2% so I'm sure Apple can live with having 27%.
@ShazAmerica I have an LTE phone (Droid Bionic) and the battery lasts me from 7 AM until I go to bed. That is all the battery life I need. Until you experience 11 Mbit downloads and 3 MBit hotspot on your phone, don't knock it. LTE is rated higher, but these are the real speeds I am getting on the Verizon network in the San Francisco Bay area.

Every generation of smart phone has been justly criticized for having less battery life that what it replaced, but many people find the utility compensates.
@ShazAmerica asics of other phone makers. It nees a bigger screen no less then4.0 but more in the 4.3 to 4.5 size. It needs lte and if going to sprint as it sounds wimax radio or on tmobile it needs the hsp+ or whatever they call thiers.It must have hdmi out,needs to have a customizable os,and it needs a price reduction other wise it makes not one bit of sense to buy an iphone until they catch up to the basic entry level smart phone.
The point is aple is so far behind other companys in means of technology and advancement you have to be brain dead to buy an iphone 5 if it can not at least catch up to the b
@sbf95070

Where do you live that your LTE is so slow?? Should be no less then15 but usual is in the 20 plus range for lte...
@ShazAmerica LTE does use more power... for another generation or so, then it's actually less draining than 3G. However, per byte transferred, it uses less power. There are already tools for Android that dynamically switch between 3G and 4G based on load. So it's faster but, since all the 4G phones have larger batteries (yeah, a bit larger than the iPhone 4's too, though in the past, the iPhone 4 had one of the larger cells), it actually runs longer in practical use. And hey, you can always switch 4G off manually if you don't need it at any given time.

The problem Apple will have, increasingly, it attracting new buyers. The iPhone was usually a leading smartphone on release, but there's every indication that the iPhone 5 will be lucky to be middle-of-the-pack this year. Or maybe we'll all be surprised. That's not a problem for upgrades -- Apple fans are pretty loyal. But new users won't see 4-4.5" screens, they won't see 720p, they won't see 4G, they won't see microSD memory expansion, they won't see built-in HDMI, they won't see 1.5GHz dual core processors, etc. It all does add up, when you're courting high-end smartphone buyers.

And incidentally, Microsoft has 5.6% of the smartphone market. However, last year they had 6.6% in the same quarter... it doesn't bode well that they're still losing share even with Windows 7 Phone out the door... it'll be interesting to see how this current quarter pans out.
@Fletchguy LOL, yet another clueless post from Fletchguy.
@Peter Perry
No big deal I rather have cheaper 3G service... look at most Apple products, still no USB 3.0, no BluRay... even first iPhone was EDGE only...
@Peter Perry
27% where an over one year old phone is outselling most, if not all of the latest and greatest {HTC, Motorola, Samsung, ...} has to offer. Hell even the two year old 3GS is doing better than most of the also rans.
But I assume one of your favorite makers, not named Apple, will put more megapixels on their camera, punch more holes on the sides and call them ports, more DLNA compatibility and let users figure it out for themselves as to what that means and go on the air talk about specs. Well, let me know how that works out for them.
@Peter Perry It's funny timenafter timemyou spell apples doom yet they still here and strong. Perry what do you think will happen ton apple shares now that have that nice deal with china mobile the largest carrier in the world. Do you think they won't go up? Do you think sprint getting the iPhone won't put apple numbers up. Your to blinded by hatred to even realize the truth.

@sbf95070 you can try and convince yourself that lte is fine on batteries. Post like yours always make me laugh. I have seen more droid bionics and htc evo's and evo 3d occupying outlets than regular desk lamps. Fact is let batter life is horrible. Been said and proven way to much but hey maybe you have that magical lte chip that has all day battery life. That was too funny. Running on LTE and have a full day of usage. You don't even believe that. Sounds more like you have buyers remorse there.
@Peter Perry And what other phone manufacturer holds that much of the market share? I think they would all be overjoyed to have that much of the market.
I'd love to see a surprise unveiling of an iPad 2HD at the same event, but I fully admit that it's a real long shot. Still, it makes sense for Apple to have two models of iPad running at the same time. They've been selling the iPhone 4 and 3GS simultaneously. It would be even better if there was a price drop on the iPad 2 with the introduction of the iPad 2HD, similar to what happened with the 3GS. Then, more folks could afford one.
@BillDem It would have to be something radically different, like a new 10 inch tablet that runs Lion OS!
@Hasam1991
But from reading Lion os has been the biggest apple flop of an os ever so why go with it and not a good fully working os instead? Or better yet an ipad with android option so its useful lol
@Fletchguy I might be their biggest flop but that really isn't saying anything is it? Their biggest flop is still a huge success. Sure, there are people that are having real problems and those that just hate change but as a user of Lion I can say I really like it and have had no issues what so ever. Of course you will skip every positive comment about it and only focus on the negative, that's what simple minded haters like yourself do.
Oh boy, another Apple event for the blogosphere to fluff. Please pardon my excitement.
@jmwells21 It's the same with Google IO, SAP Sapphire and even Microsoft this week with Windows 8... Troll
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In the interest of accuracy...
msalzberg 21st Sep
it should be noted that Steve Jobs did not resign from the company, as you (wrongly) stated.
Who cares? I am going to continue to wait for the new Windows/Nokia offerings. That should actually be something new and different.
@Donn_z Thank you for taking the time to post something completely irrelevant which nobody cares about. Of course I assume you feel so much better now taking that childish shot. To each their own on device choices, hope your happy with what you get when they come out but if you grow up a bit you will be a lot happier.
0 Votes
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4G or LTE
4"+ screen
Sim Card - I'm on ATT

Missing any of these and sorry....
Right now I am really liking the look of the Titan...... Then there's the S II...... So many choices wink
@rhonin Missing all of those and it will probably still set records with the sales volume.
Or will it fail to stave off the company's continuing market-share decline?
@ldo17 This one is definitely not their Android killer -- by all accounts (eg, the rumor mill), it's an upgraded iPhone 4 without any 4G radio. Now, you don't buy an iPhone for the radio... every model of the iPhone has been behind devices from "real" phone makers in the RF area: 2G in the 3G era, high speed 3G download but UMTS R99 only uploads until the iPhone 4, no diversity antennas, etc. So I'm not betting that the lack of 4G has a big impact on iPhone fans. But it will probably slow the rate of new iPhone adoption, as this may be the first iPhone released that doesn't have a single feature trumping the Android high-end.

Maybe... there's also the rumor that the usual June release was pushed back to October because the iPhone 5 just didn't cut it. So next month, we'll see that iPhone 5 rebadged as the iPhone 4GS, and a newer iPhone 5, sharing mechanicals and many other parts, with some tweaks or another to better represent Apple as a 2011 model. Again, like everything else here, just a rumor.

Personally, I'm waiting to see the Nexus/Droid Prime. A 720p AM-OLED screen alone might be enough for me. And 4G is critical... particularly for Verizon users. The current Verizon 3G, EvDO, runs at best half the speed of AT&T or T-Mobile HSPA. True, it has better range in rural areas, but LTE will do better still. And Verizon will complete their network upgrade -- the whole network, every cell -- sometime in 2013. Which means, phones sold over this next year will very much live in a 4G world.
@dave@... ...there's also the rumor that ...
Funny how you quote the rumors that help you make the iPhone look bad. Doesn't matter what you want or say you need in a phone, none of us know what is coming. What you and so many can wrap your heads around is that the average consumer doesn't care about spec sheets, they buy the iPhone because they like it better. You can have all the bells and whistles you want but if the user experience isn't better your not going to sell more.
@ldo17 They don't need an Android killer, they are already killing every Android phone maker out there. They don't have to own the market to be very happy and VERY profitable.
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zoopteg 43 eha
cmakrejktt83-24379044899667154945519486961566 25th Nov
uscpiw,inyxcihs04, oqryq.

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