Rumor: Apple planning late February event?

Apple could be gearing up for a late February event, according to a report out Thursday.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported that Mira Mobile Television, a West Coast television production firm, is hiring in preparation for an Apple event to be held at the end of February. TUAW notes that the listings aren't posted on Mira's site, and it calls its own report an "unconfirmed rumor" based on a single source.

So why give it any credence? For one, Apple's Greg Joswiak earlier this week reiterated the company's plans to introduce the iPhone software developer's kit in late February. It's hard to imagine how a media event heralding a software developer's kit would unfold, but the timing would be right, and the release of the SDK is a significant milestone in the evolution of the iPhone.

Coming off the new higher-capacity iPhone and iPod Touch introduced this week, it would be a bit surprising if Apple chose this rumored event to launch the 3G iPhone, but that would certainly be an equally important milestone. Announcements about additional European carriers as well as the first Asian carriers are also expected in due time.

AppleInsider said it had heard similar rumors concerning a late February event, but was likewise unable to call it anything else but a rumor. Stay tuned, the invitations for these kinds of things tend to go out about a week or so ahead of time.

[camp88]

Three letters: SDK (no text)

I told you, no text!

[stalexone]

No...OS X announcement

This is the announcement regarding Leopard's issues. One of the reason that some people are having issues is because Apple has increased hardware compatibility to make it more compatible with varying types of white box PCs....because it will soon be released as a standalone OS for everyone!

[DemiHampster]

You're on crack

Sacrifice reliabilty for what?

[FellowConspirator]

Doubtful, but...

I sincerely doubt that's it. Leopard's issues are largely <br />annoyances and appear to be addressed in the current seed of <br />10.5.2 - nothing meriting anything in the way of an <br />announcement (particularly since Apple's pattern has not been <br />to talk about issues but rather just to quietly fix them).<br /><br />As far as releasing it as a stand-alone OS... I don't doubt that <br />will happen some day, but it's not likely to happen this month. <br />Apple needs their hardware and OS penetration to be a little <br />bigger to make that work. They need to make driver <br />development as simple as possible to encourage it, make the <br />licensing models acceptable to OEMs and consumers, and be <br />able to present a sufficiently large enough software base to <br />appeal to a larger customer base.<br /><br />If they wait too long, the competition might land on its feet, if <br />they don't wait long enough, they risk releasing a product that's <br />not reliable on OEM equipment and incompatible with existing <br />apps - which would drive away customers by giving a bad <br />impression / experience.<br /><br />I haven't given it a whole lot of thought, but I'm sure that the <br />business development group has some criteria outlined already <br />that identify the conditions when it's right. If they do play their <br />cards right, it'd make a huge wave in the computer industry. Dell <br />would sell OS X over Windows any day (they've publicly stated as <br />much). I just don't think Apple's quite yet ready for the sort of <br />expansion that would precipitate.

[hlywd217]

Yes

I have no information on Apples plans. However I think it makes perfect sense to sell the OS standalone. I've wondered why they haven't been doing this for years.<br /><br />Driving their stock up...it might just make sense.

[shoffmueller]

why report rumors?

there's plenty of mac rumor sites - why does a site with "news" in the url report speculation?<br /><br />That being said, the OSX on beige PCs theory - forget it. Apple is a hardware company - they use software (and music) to sell their hardware.

[pmchefalo]

Apple is Consumer Electronics Company

They took the "Computer" off their name. They are selling the high-end Macs at a loss or a very low mark-up - compare a Dell with similar hardwaere. If the Air flops (as many think it will) they may want to monetize their OS an release it to OEMs to get slaughtered.

[Norseman]

Apple TV.

The Next Big Thing.

[catbus99]

Java/Flash??

The lack of Java and Flash is a huge hole in the iPhone/Touch OS. When I heard about the expanded capacity of the newly released models, I found myself hoping that these would be coming soon.<br /><br />Could it be that the *big* news coming out of the SDK release could be that developers (as well as humble end-users) will have access to these environments? <br /><br />Will some of the OS features that people have been jailbreaking (file and directory access, etc.) be let out on parole?<br /><br />Let us hope!

[ferretboy88]

No flash is a joke

What is up with no flash. Iphone is a rip off. AT+T sucks.

[imacpwr]

Will include Swisscom announcement.

Coming in spring of 2008 to Swisscom (maybe end of February <br />already):<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i152/imacpwr/S-i.jpg" target="_newWindow">http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i152/imacpwr/S-i.jpg</a>

[Andy kaufman]

Yeah Apple abandons OSX switches to Windows Vista

Apple will report "If you cannot beat them, join them!" as OSX 10.5 Leopard will be the last OSX developed and all new Macintosh computers will have Windows Vista installed on them instead of OSX. The iPod and iPhone will switch to Windows Mobile.<br /><br />Steve Jobs will announce that "Apple will not be going the way of Commodore Amiga, we are migrating to a 100% Windows solution in our products now." as he stands side by side with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer as Apple now parters up with Microsoft on all products now, as Microsoft buys out a large share of Apple stocks.<br /><br />Bill Gates announces "We could have used the money to buy out Yahoo, but since Yahoo rejected our offer, we realized that investing in Apple would be a lot better in the long run. Now Apple will help us develop Windows 7.0 using the OSX technology, and we will integrate MSN with Apple's iTunes store."