CrunchGear

yawn…
remember the ROCKR?
that was cool

-ryan

The only important date to me is the date it will be available. I already know its coming, and more or less have an idea of the expected specs.

Would go great with my m2 convert for ipod prize.

I think I’m gonna have to call this one. The 18th just makes absolutely no sense, nobody in their sane mind would try to rush out a product one week before Christmas. And we all know that Steve of all people has absolutely no rush. He pulled the Nano out of his pocket in January without even thinking about the business they could have had three weeks earlier, and the same will happen with the iPhone. Especially if the thing has a hefty $600 price tag.

At best some announcement will happen by the 18th. Maybe carriers will start adding iPhone plans to their websites. Maybe you can pre-order. But have the actual device in stores to go and buy and try and phone your mom and say Merry Christmas? Nuh-uh.

mot/nok/samsung are screwed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkJ3Y495HP8

A few words about this:

Apple is not the epitome of marketing genius. They’ve had their share of ups and downs.

That said, Apple has a lot to gain from this, but if this flops, it could seriously hurt their plans on taking over the world. I mean entering the cell phone market.

Releasing a product like this the week before Christmas wouldn’t be the smartest idea as far as getting the items out of inventory and actually having good distribution, but it would make tons of sense as far as publicity and desire for the product goes. However, I still think Apple is going to hold on pulling the trigger for now. Why?

1) Apple is wrapping up a new release of Apple iPod items (namely the new shuffle and new Nano). As much as people wants new Apple things, they really don’t enjoy dropping tons of money on Apple branded items, especially when it’s not for themselves (e.g. buying the present for someone else).

2) Having products open before Christmas is great for the immediate publicity, but after Christmas, all these items fall off the face of the planet. Why you ask? Because after Christmas, the items released before Christmas automatically become ‘old-tech’, or ‘old and busted.’ Apple would do themselves a favor if they released their product sometime in the spring, catching the pre-summer rush to buy cool products so you can impress the cool cats at home.

3) No leaks so far. Yeah I know this is lame, but it makes sense. Leaks are the number one source something is actually going to happen. This is because when things start going in motion, more people starting be told about things, and more people start getting excited and start talking. And start showing pictures, patents, contracts, body parts, etc. The fact that we’ve only heard shadows of this going on means I don’t think anything has really come about besides maybe Steve Jobs saying “Heh, an iPhone. Hey wait, that’s a good idea…” I’d guarantee someone in the phone carrier side to have said something about this by now, except no one cares about my guarantees.

At the lowest end, these phone carriers would have to teach their floor reps at the B&M locations how to market/use these phones, so something would have come from that.

Anyways, my two cents (to go along with Sascha’s).

I never thought the iPhone would be unveied at MacWorld, its too big, and there is already a full slate on call for MacWorld. iTV, OS 10.5 features, possibly an 8 core mac pro, possibly new thin macbook pro……

The reason to do this now is to get it out of the way. If they do it at MacWorld then it overshadows everything. If they delay it, people come away from MacWorld disappointed.
I think iTV is hugely important to them, and must get the opening it deserves.

Either that or we’re all wrong, but I’ve never seen Gizmodo so sure about a rumor, I doubt its a hoax.

Matt:

To clarify, what exactly is an iPhone? A phone with an Apple UI? or an Apple produced cellphone?

crap…lets keep our fingers crossed on this