With Apple's annual WWDC conference taking place next month, it's expected that Apple will not only be shedding more light on Snow Leopard and on the iPhone's new OS 3.0 software update, but, in addition, it's expected to reveal one or more new iPhone's.
But maybe not?
That's because one Wall Street analyst is advising clients that his best guess and bet is that any new iPhones or other new hardware will be delayed by several weeks until after the WWDC event in order to accommodate the return of Steve Jobs to Apple as CEO, expected at the end of June.
Piper Jaffray's analyst Gene Munster, in a note to clients, believes that based on Wednesday's WWDC keynote plans, it's now very likely that the event will focus entirely just on software, leaving any iPhone, or other hardware to be announced later by Steve Jobs after his return.
Mr. Munster is betting that any new iPhone, or other new hardware, would make a bigger impact at a surprise event, an event that could allow Mr. Jobs to stir up and wow the media in a way that only he has been known to be able to do. Regarding Jobs announcing any new iPhones or other such hardware, Mr. Munster wrote:
"We continue to expect multiple models, possibly a high-end iPhone with improved specs from the current version and a low-end version with lower capacity and fewer features along with a reduced pricing plan...."
I think that Gene Munster makes a good case. With so many wondering, if not down-right worrying that Mr. Jobs may never return, or if he does, return only in some type of limited capacity, that it would be a shot-in-the-arm to have Jobs return and then personally introduce any significant new hardware himself, rather than at the WWDC. Such a presentation on Mr. Jobs part would send a huge wake up call to the entire industry and would raise confidence in Apple, and helping, in the process, to silence all of the Steve Jobs and Apple doom-sayers out there at the same time!
As much as I hate to see any new iPhone's or other hardware delayed, I think that having Steve introduce them later rather than earlier by another Apple executive, would make for a far bigger impact than otherwise would be the case. As good as Phil Schiller, Tim Cooke and other Apple executives are, the fact still remains that no one else within Apple, or from out side of it, is quite as capable of doing a presentation quite the same way that Steve is famous for!
Mr. Munsters makes a good case of delaying any new iPhone hardware announcement until after the WWDC in order to allow Mr. Jobs the honor. However, whether or not it will it actually happen this way, I can't say for certain, but personally, I'm betting my last 2 cents that it will, and that Jobs will do it with a style and impact worthy of his past showmanship!
And that's my 2 cents 4 this Thursday, May 14, 2009
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