Apple restricting employee vacations as first 2011 products loom - Page 2

Haha!

That joke just made my day

Yes, but what's the point? What would they add? 802.11ac isn't finalized yet.

Here's my guess.

A box about the size of an AppleTV with space for internal hdd RAID and external hdd.

It will be iOS based and run network TimeMachine...

Oh, yeah, it will run iTunes...

Why should you be upset? It's not as if the product you bought will fall apart as soon as a new one is announced. And if you're posting info on AppleInsider, I'm sure you are wise enough NEVER to buy an Apple product when it approaches time for an update (which means, yes, you'll be waiting for a bit).

It does not take a genius to know when Apple is going to update a product. It's on an almost yearly cycle. People who got iPads for Christmas have still enjoyed them. Those with wise tech-oriented people told their friends to give IOUs for an iPad 2.

I see Apple announcing the iPad sometime late Jan - early Feb...

...Then vPhone in late Feb - early Mar.

...Then iP5 in late May - early Jun.

...Then Mac OS X Lion + iMac Touch in July.

...Somewhere. in all this (1 half 2011) is a 64-bit ARM-based XServe replacement & Final Cut Pro apps.

The iPad announce is the wildcard -- Apple can announce and release this whenever they want.

So far, nothing at CES is forcing their hand.

That just feels so WRONG to me.


I want to say September at the earliest. WWDC developers will get a late beta of Lion, and Apple needs months to build out to a GM. I also don't buy iMac Touch at all. No one wants to reach out and touch a vertical screen for eight hours.


It's an iDevice... why not April?

You may well be right -- I am only guessing!

The point I was trying to make is that Apple has a backlog of things to announce.

Apple is/are master of marketing and timing.

Why go to CES and compete for press with the others?

Apple gets more press by not announcing anything.


Silence...

Then a press invite from Apple for the following week.

The press goes crazy for a week in anticipation.

Apple has their press announcement.

The press goes crazy for a week or two, in response.

Repeat!

Somewhere during all this RIM or Moto or ? releases their "next great thing" -- but it gets no press -- nobody knows or cares.


That's marketing as done by the master.

While crowds are maddening, especially if you work in the Apple store, it's actually "madding" crowd.

Actually, ive firmly believe the MAS will come out on the first day of CES. Its a product that does not need another introduction. Its a product that will still thrive even if not getting complete focus from the press out of the gate. Its a product that contain other products that will announce across Twitter, FaceBook, developer sites, et al. that they are on the MAS. Yet it will disrupt CES enough to give Apple the effect they need. Its a free flash grenade for Apple to throw in their opponents camp.

I presume that's related to this:

Well, as a side note...an AppleTV is way too small for an internal hard disk...

But yes an A4 and iOS based home server would be interesting, expanding on Time Machine basically. Great if it served media to the AppleTV and other Apple devices in the home (which is what you mean by running iTunes?)

But that's not enough to need extra staff for 3 weeks, I think. Unless it was part of something bigger...


It is about time Apple announced what the new data centre will be doing. Bringing together iWork.com, new MobileMe, iTunes cloud, new router/servers... could be interesting but I still wonder about the single "BUY ME" device that would need staff in the stores.

Back to the iServer idea - the biggest complaint about having things "in the cloud" is the speed of access, and distrust of not having a local copy yourself. An Apple home server that duplicates itself entirely in the cloud would be interesting - buy a 2TB home server with 2TB online storage - and have all your devices (including laptops) syncing to the home server (when home) or MobileMe (when out and about)? This brings together cloud and home systems in a nice way.

btw: On an "out there" note - 3 years ago there were rumours of Steve Jobs meeting with a community mesh networking group (like Meraki?). Apple could still release a system that turned every Airport or iMac into an open wireless signal for other Apple devices to connect to, to bypass the mobile networks. Again though... what's the "BUY ME" product here?

Oh.. I didn't really say my predictions

iPad makes sense to me as the main release, plus various extras.

I don't see Verizon iPhone requiring the staff, but perhaps that's because I'm not from the US!


The first iMac/MBP Touches will still use track pads and keyboards, but also have touch screens, IMO. I expect them to be released with Lion.

I agree it's too tiring, as you describe. But there are advantages too.

I really hope its the new CHEAPER iPad2....i've wanted an iPad since they came out but havent been able to afford it.

My thought is, Apple loves the hype. And they always deliver on the product. It always lives up the hype. This is just hype for the new iPad......i guarantee it

Needs to drop $100 to better meet competitors.

On the contrary! I was glad to see Apple introduce the new MBA worldwide simultaneously! A change with many positive implications. As shareholder I like their growth, and aiming to the world instead of the US enables much more growth in many ways. As non US resident Apple fan I get access to more goodies earlier.

A CDMA iPhone is though a very US thing with interest - for me - only as shareholder.

If it would be something else like iPad 2 or MBPs, then it's another story.

A bad thing to note: in the swedish apple store, they still retail the old apple tv. Very bad! In all perspectives!

People aren't talking about an iPhone refresh. They are talking about the present iPhone 4 in a CDMA version for Verizon. We won't be seeing iPhone 5 untill June/July.

But WHY. A vertical touchscreen will never be used. It's a gimmick. You mess with it for five minutes on the HP models in stores, but (heaven forbid you actually buy one) no one uses it when they take it home.


"Gee, Bob, your arms sure are muscular!"

"Why, thanks, Ted; it's all thanks to my new HP TouchSmart computer that I've been forcing myself to use vertically like it is in the store."

"Gee, Bob, that seems awfully stupid, given the inherent failures of ergonomics on a vertical touchscreen."

"Why, Ted, I believe you're right."

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's 4 A.M. here.

white iPhone

Because people are starting to expect to be able to touch a screen and interact in that method. The same way some people grab an old Nokia and try to click on the icons instead of using the little joystick to move about.

And Apple was the company that set that touch expectation.

In your standard desktop configuration it won't be used much. Multi-touch is good for resizing and moving objects but otherwise as you say it just doesn't make sense. Still the interface will evolve (and look more iPad like in many ways which will work for touch). I think the touch pad will become the well used "short cut" to accomplishing most onscreen movements more easily.

(BTW.... touchscreen or not, Lion needs to fix the touch scrolling contradiction between Lion and iOS. In iOS if you want to scroll down a page you slide up with your finger, but in OSX you slide down with your fingers. The Lion demo did not fix this.)

I am not sure why so many people think that it is going to be one or the other of an iPhone or an iPad.

I agree with an earlier poster, this "event" is going to be all about connectivity. They will roll out whatever they are doing with the datacenter (streaming iTunes or major change in MobileMe are my guesses). Then they will release a new iPhone and iPad.

Number them whatever you want, but the major point of them will be that they will work on Verizon. The only change to the iPhone will likely be the CDMA capabilities, and perhaps a fix for the antenna. However, I see the iPad getting a few upgrades. Primarily being the inclusion of cameras for Facetime, and I would guess a bump in RAM to equal the iPhone 4.

One other note or place to look for verification of this is Verizon's hiring practices. In my area Verizon has been hiring a sizable number of network technicians within the last couple of months. I know because a family member used to work for Sprint and was just hired by Verizon, along with a few of his co-workers. Seems to me they could very well be prepping themselves for a flood of new users, like say from a new Verizon iPhone.

Only the really hot products have a staggered worldwide launch (ie, iPhone and iPad), Macs and iPods normally are released simultaneously worldwide.

Or the new non-glossy-monitor-ed iMac.

I would guess iPad2. It has been *almost* a year. The notion that there will be a six-month (or more) delay between AT&T and Verizon launches seems dubious to me. However, it may be the only way they can sort-of keep up with demand. It seems like they should evenly space the launches at four-month intervals. Or maybe they are trying to space them evenly in the first half-ish of the year, so they can be caught-up for the holiday season. Nevertheless, I really don't see an iPhone4 Verizon launch only three months before the iPhone5 launch. That would really kill the supply chain. They would have to make millions of iPhone4s when they should be ramping up production for iPhone5.

Nobody has mentioned an iPhone nano in a while. I don't think it will ever happen, but I thought I would just throw it out there for the heck of it.

no way



more...

I don't see the demand for a white version of a six-month-old iPhone justifying a vacation blackout.

Ditto here (though I'll just be buying one)!

Look, this is simple. Apple isn't going to release an iPhone on Verizon, that is different than all other iPhones, and not add a bunch of other changes and improvements as well. Everyone is copying Apple already, but they will, I believe, give them even more to 'catch up' with when the VZ phone comes out.

The CONTRACT for iPhone at AT&T was for specific branded phones such as iPhone, iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. This could be iPhone Pro or something, they won't just put it out as iPhone 4 (verizon edition) etc.. that is Microsoft branding, not Apple branding.

And, maybe they will release iOS apps for Apple TV. That device is really gaining steam. Apple knows that a pot will boil much quicker if you leave the lid on awhile.

This new iMac touch screen would be really done right, and all iOS apps would work on it, iPad and iPhone apps as well. And it would have 3G.

Nothing could touch it.

Apple had it all stolen away from them, after earning it themselves, once already. I don't think they will let that happen again.

You FAIL！

White i-Phone 4 Still HAS A STAGGERING DEMAND

" Much Bigger than Verizon i-Phone "！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

Proof?


Proof?


No. You're completely wrong about that. Next.

Everybody who thinks this is connectivity would have to explain why people selling hardware in physical retail shops are restricted from vacation. There would have to be a physical device involved for their managers to care.



There. I said it.

No, there's also training.

The the headline would be - lots of mysterious training for staff at Apple Stores.

This vacation restriction happens when there is a hardware announcement. Its the iPhone.

Have we worked out if it is America only yet? ( I am guessing it is, as other countries would see vacation restrictions as illegal).

Verizon iPhone. THere is, also, no "event" yet. Just this rumour of people not getting leave.

And what do you think they do with the hardware when they get it? Force them to give up vacation time to rub new iPhones all over their bodies? They're TRAINING.

Lol. They're selling. Jesus wept. Thats why they hired more people over Christmas. These same people have been kept on. No Training involved.

Also if this new connectivity thingumabob needs training in the APple store before I can use it it wont be much of an Apple product, Ill stick with dropbox which had a nice instruction in the install page.

Did you actually read any of the post saying that the "event" will be about connectivity?

Connectivity will the the theme for the release.

Which means that the product announcements will be grouped by their ties to greater connectivity.

I.E. I believe that they will announce the Verizon iPhone (whatever they call it or number it), they will announce an iPad which will work on Verizon (after looking, I think they will announce the iPad 2 since the iPad 1 was announced Jan 27, 2010). They will announce other connectivity things along with this hardware.

Possibly, AppleTV apps or a camera for Facetime on AppleTV, iTunes streaming, enhancements to MobileMe, and other software or services related to connectivity.

At least that is my guess.

So, as you can see. The theme of connectivity could and likely will include plenty of hardware to require the retail employees to be present to sale.

If the original would do, it should be discounted. Since they discount the old-gen iPhone $100 every year, im wondering what the discount on the old-gen iPad will be. $100 or more?



On the only America thing- the other thing to check would be the vacations for China. If im not mistaken, there the other largest CDMA iphone likely.

Under the current configurations I would tend to agree with you, but what if future iPads could be "linked to a mac desktop" .... i.e. like a keyboard replacement .... utilizing the power and capacity of a desktop, but using it like an iPad ??? That would be a whole different ball game ... no?

iPad case leaks recently, so I think it's most probably iPad 2 launch with a CDMA iPhone as one more thing

LOL, Verizon people gonna be let down once again. Just give up already.

A verizon phone is 100% certain. The vacation curtailment may mean something else as well. Or not.