Apple's March 9 'Spring Forward' event steals thunder from rivals at Mobile World Congress
Whether intentionally timed or just a matter of coincidence, Apple's just-announced March 9 event is likely to overshadow the Mobile World Congress mega-conference in Barcelona, which will take place the preceding week.
Scheduled for March 2 through 5, Mobile World Congress will conclude just four days before Apple's "Spring Forward" event, where the company is expected to give more details on its upcoming wearable Apple Watch.
Of course, it's likely that Apple's rivals will use MWC to unveil their own wearable devices as the nascent market continues to grow, in addition to new smartphone models intended to take on the iPhone. But as in years past, Apple's ability to build hype is likely to temper excitement for competitors' announcements.
This isn't new: Apple has a history of strategically upstaging industry events where it does not participate, as well as its competitors' announcements.
For example, last year Samsung announced its latest "phablet," the Galaxy Note 4 in early September ahead of its scheduled October release. But just a week later, the iPhone 6 Plus was announced by Apple and launched in a matter of days, beating Samsung's jumbo-sized phone to market. With the wind taken out of its sails, Samsung scrambled for an early launch of the Galaxy Note 4, but sales were tepid in the face of Apple's first phablet.
Apple also has a well-established history of making announcements, issuing press releases, leaking details or scheduling events timed with another major industry show, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in early January.
At MWC 2015, presentations will be made by a number of Apple rivals, including Samsung, which is widely expected to unveil its response to the iPhone 6 in its own Galaxy S6. It's also possible that the South Korean electronics maker, which already has a number of smartwatches available on the market, could respond to the Apple Watch with a new wearable device.
There's also HTC, which is also expected to unveil its flagship M9 smartphone, as well as its own first stab at a wearable device. Google will be in attendance, showing off its Project Ara modular smartphone concept, while Microsoft is expected to take the wraps off new Lumia handsets
Other companies with a presence at MWC will include LG, Huawei, Sony, and Lenovo.
But all week during MWC, anticipation for Apple's soon-to-follow "Spring Forward" event will inevitably weigh over the proceedings. At its keynote presentation, Apple is expected to give the final details on the Apple Watch, which will become available to consumers in April.
The company also has a number of anticipated products in its pipeline that could be given attention at the event. Most notably, the company has been drawing down inventory of its current MacBook Air lineup, a telltale sign that an update is in the works, presumably with Intel's latest Haswell processors.
The company is rumored to be working on an all-new MacBook Air design with a 12-inch Retina display, though it's unclear if the anticipated thin-and-light notebook will be unveiled at the March 9 event. Other products due for updates based on historical trends are the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Apple TV.
Scheduled for March 2 through 5, Mobile World Congress will conclude just four days before Apple's "Spring Forward" event, where the company is expected to give more details on its upcoming wearable Apple Watch.
Of course, it's likely that Apple's rivals will use MWC to unveil their own wearable devices as the nascent market continues to grow, in addition to new smartphone models intended to take on the iPhone. But as in years past, Apple's ability to build hype is likely to temper excitement for competitors' announcements.
This isn't new: Apple has a history of strategically upstaging industry events where it does not participate, as well as its competitors' announcements.
For example, last year Samsung announced its latest "phablet," the Galaxy Note 4 in early September ahead of its scheduled October release. But just a week later, the iPhone 6 Plus was announced by Apple and launched in a matter of days, beating Samsung's jumbo-sized phone to market. With the wind taken out of its sails, Samsung scrambled for an early launch of the Galaxy Note 4, but sales were tepid in the face of Apple's first phablet.
Apple also has a well-established history of making announcements, issuing press releases, leaking details or scheduling events timed with another major industry show, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in early January.
At MWC 2015, presentations will be made by a number of Apple rivals, including Samsung, which is widely expected to unveil its response to the iPhone 6 in its own Galaxy S6. It's also possible that the South Korean electronics maker, which already has a number of smartwatches available on the market, could respond to the Apple Watch with a new wearable device.
There's also HTC, which is also expected to unveil its flagship M9 smartphone, as well as its own first stab at a wearable device. Google will be in attendance, showing off its Project Ara modular smartphone concept, while Microsoft is expected to take the wraps off new Lumia handsets
Other companies with a presence at MWC will include LG, Huawei, Sony, and Lenovo.
But all week during MWC, anticipation for Apple's soon-to-follow "Spring Forward" event will inevitably weigh over the proceedings. At its keynote presentation, Apple is expected to give the final details on the Apple Watch, which will become available to consumers in April.
The company also has a number of anticipated products in its pipeline that could be given attention at the event. Most notably, the company has been drawing down inventory of its current MacBook Air lineup, a telltale sign that an update is in the works, presumably with Intel's latest Haswell processors.
The company is rumored to be working on an all-new MacBook Air design with a 12-inch Retina display, though it's unclear if the anticipated thin-and-light notebook will be unveiled at the March 9 event. Other products due for updates based on historical trends are the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Apple TV.
Comments
What's a Mobile World Congress?
I think this event will be devoted to Watch, with perhaps a rMBA launch as a sidenote. AppleTV will wait until WWDC at the earliest (if they're opening it to developers, it makes sense to announce it there).
With emphasis on "Spring Forward", hopefully they've worked out the iOS DST bugs for this go around.
Am I right in assuming that "Mobile World Congress" is really just Android World Congress at this point?
Not entirely. I heard Apple will be participating in an event with IBM about their joint mobile in the the enterprise strategy which is strategic for IBM and could end up being so for Apple, tho for Not-as-Big-as-it-was Blue, it's more about relevance and survival and for Apple for now, gravy....
...and while Win Phone's pretty moribund in the US (to be kind), MS has staying power and may finally start to enough right with Win 10 to eventually claw back to say, 5-10% of the market in time.
But 90-95% pretty much IMO
Ohhh ... Do you have any more info about the IBM / Apple event?
It would be really ballsy if they showed some new IBM mobile apps on an iPad Pro running Swift 1.2 -- collaborating through a new AppleTV
... upstage²
Microsoft should be there trailing a bunch of techie loosers behind them.
I can remember back in the late '80s when the world revolved around what MS was announcing. Now it's what Apple is doing. Funny thing, Apple sucks the oxygen out of the room and they aren't even there. I don't think MS ever had that much power.
Whether intentionally timed or just a matter of coincidence, Apple's just-announced March 9 event is likely to overshadow the Mobile World Congress mega-conference in Barcelona, which will take place the preceding week.
I don't think Apple really cares what other conferences or media events are going on.
And if you're a journalist and you receive two or more invitations for the same day, but one of them is to attend an Apple announcement, guess which one that person will probably go to?
lol. Try harder Android
If Google wasn't doing fine, they they'd change their strategy. I assume Google and Android are doing just fine, even with smaller profits. They have the market and now they have far more customer data than Apple. That's their model and that seems to be fine with Google and its customers?
Google Android and Apple sounds like apples and oranges. Apple is going for hardware profits and Google is going for information profits - selling info on customers. Right or wrong, creepy or not, Google seems to have something right for data mining and big data. Soon there should be more defined Google Android hardware makers and Google could go out and select a few for certain markets and things would be just fine.
We should thank Google for creating competition. And we can thank them that people who can't afford Apple have a smartphone they can afford. This is a very good thing. And MS too with cheaper phones in the world for everyone to have access to information. Not everyone has money to go out and buy new phones.
We should keep Apple and Google as not direct competitors. They really are not. Until Samsung comes out with a rock solid phone for pricier market tiers and Apple comes out with a cheap phone (like $100). It won't probably happen.
And good there is a world mobile congress.
I don't think Apple really cares what other conferences or media events are going on.
And if you're a journalist and you receive two or more invitations for the same day, but one of them is to attend an Apple announcement, guess which one that person will probably go to?
My feeling is that under Jobs, Apple found ways to undermine the promotional efforts of others by creating massive amounts of buzz. It seems the buzz was super super strong under Jobs, but still exists, to a certain extent. Apple has been stealing the thunder right around the time that others are promoting their technology and goods, like at CES and this conference.
This sounds like another bomb they dropped that was strategically given a date. Basically, "no one" is going to know or remember the mobile world congress because of the iWatch and whatever else Apple reveals.
Cook did it again recently by dropping a tidbit that iWatch will be water resistant for the shower. Its a tease and a big one. First, in September, by revealing a lot, but not revealing everything and leaving a lot of questions and keep people talking. Then drop stuff here and there.
Apple is the MASTER of buzz. Boy, they know how to drown out the competition or anyone else.
Am I right in assuming that "Mobile World Congress" is really just Android World Congress at this point?
http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/about/start-here/who-attends-mwc/
A summary assessment from you -- since you apparently read it -- would have been helpful, instead of just a link. Those who want more details (or do not believe you) can always click on the link, no?
I agree -- to some extent!
However, I think the impending March 9 event is strategically driven by the calendar -- rather than a competing conference.
Apple should be able to announce, open preorders and ship/release the Apple Watch in the last few weeks of March. This creates the buzz you mention -- but also gives them positive fodder for the 2Q15 Earnings Call some time in April.
Tim will be able to say something like: "We are extremely happy with the acceptance of the Apple Watch -- even though supply-constrained, we were able to ship [some number of] Apple Watches in its first 2 weeks of availability ..."
Apple Pay acceptance and new AAPL dividend percentage will help complete the strategy.
It's not that hard to overshadow it, especially when the "competition" just keeps churning out more sh!t each time...
It's the day after Daylight Savings... it has to do with time pieces.
No conspiracy to block other events.
Although the timing is perfect to do just that.
Ohhh ... Do you have any more info about the IBM / Apple event?
It would be really ballsy if they showed some new IBM mobile apps on an iPad Pro running Swift 1.2 -- collaborating through a new AppleTV
... upstage²
No, only heard it in passing on one of TWIT's podcasts. And can't find a link on it now (found an article about Apple making presentations on mobile development, but it was from a previous year). So all I got.