So here ’s what we know about Thursday ’s press - only event at Apple ’s Cupertino central office : The event start up at 10 a.m. PT and will focus on the forthcoming iPhone 4.0 update . The invitation was moderately clear about that .
We also know that , whatever iPhone - relate news Apple plans to bring out , Macworld’sJason Snell and Dan Frakes will be in Cupertino tolive web log the iPhone 4.0 trailer .
But aside from that ? Your guess about Thursday ’s iPhone 4.0 trailer event is as dependable as mine . And therein consist the peril of hear to forecast dictum from a troupe that keeps its cards pretty tight to the vest .
“ I do n’t think there ’s a whole lot of value in speculating on any given feature film at this point , ” enjoin Michael Gartenberg , a partner with Altimeter Group , when I mouth to him on Wednesday . And while that ’s on-key enough , half the playfulness of these Apple get - togethers comes from trying to deduce what Apple has planned . ( The other one-half ? remind anyone foolhardy enough to make a guess how spectacularly wrong they turn out to be , if my inbox is any denotation . )
fortuitously , Apple tender a little hint as to what to await from what it ’s done at preceding iPhone OS events . This is the third consecutive give Apple has summoned reporters to its military headquarters to give them the straight dope on what to require in forthcoming OS update . In 2008 , the company took the wraps off the iPhone SDK , which paved the fashion for those hundreds of 1000 of apps that currently fill up your sound , and talked up efforts to make the smartphone more sympathetic to go-ahead drug user . In 2009 , Apple focused on young tools for app makers , let in in - app purchases and peer - to - peer connectivity . It also preview new features like cut - and - paste and MMS financial backing direct at extending the iPhone OS ’s capableness . ( Or , if you ’re the glass - half - empty type , added feature that probably should have been there in the first plaza . )
What could that mean for Thursday ? More of the same , says Avi Greengart , research theater director for consumer devices at Current Analysis , who told me that the event “ will be part between features aimed at amend the user experience for consumer and features purport at helping developers build rich software . ”
What those feature will be , of course , is up to Apple . But the analysts I spoke to on Wednesday seem to fit in with Macworld ’s wishlist , with third - party multitasking guide the requests . “ I cognize why they did n’t do it in the first generation , ” said Tim Bajarin , chairperson of consulting firm Creative Strategies , adding that Apple felt allow apps to run in the background would deplete barrage fire life . But now with rival mobile operating systems featuring multitasking — most notably , Google ’s Android OS—”it ’s become a competitive upshot , ” Bajarin added .
Even if full - fledged multitasking is n’t in the whole shebang for iPhone 4.0 , Greengart said , Apple could insert some modified form of the feature . “ It may provide a circumscribed phone number of covering to run in the background , or , more likely , allow specific appendage to run in the background , ” tell Greengart , citing streaming music , GPS beaming , and messaging , as possible examples .
Other changes to the iPhone OS that Greengart see as a possibility for Thursday include societal web integration—“another country where where Apple fall behind Palm , HTC , and Motorola , ” he said — and notifications and alerts . “ Apple has to have see that the approach Palm and Google take to qui vive is better than the modal method Apple utilise every time you get a text message or even a phone call , ” he added .
Still , Altimeter Group ’s Gartenberg notes that Apple is n’t typically in the riding habit of matching what competition already do . “ Apple typically does n’t respond in that manner , ” he say . “ They keep their own direction as to what ’s an significant feature or not . ”
Apple ’s Thursday event comes less than a calendar week afterthe iPad hit store . But do n’t appear for the tablet to garner much attention during Apple ’s presentation . True , the change to the iPhone O preview Thursday may also affect the iPad , but it ’s the sound experience that figures to be front and center during the event .
That goes double when it come to possible hardware declaration , like a future version of the phone itself . “ It ’s unlikely if the past is any guide , ” Gartenberg said . “ Apple has done [ iPhone o events ] double … and in both cases , it restrain the focus on the software system . ”
Bajarin is even more adamant about where Apple will place its focus at Thursday ’s event . “ I do n’t trust it has anything to do with the iPad , ” he said . “ I do n’t believe it has anything to do with computer hardware . ”
alternatively , look for Apple to do on Thursday what it ’s done the preceding two years — go down the stage for releases to come later this yr . “ They have often done this to fix up the [ Worldwide ] Developers Conference and lay the groundwork for what can be next , ” Bajarin tell . “ Then , they roll thing out nigher to the Developer Conference . ”
