Daring Fireball: Sharing the Stage:
The problem that occurred to me: I don’t think Apple would want reviews of both a new iPhone and new-size iPad appearing at the same time. Why share the spotlight? Why have another Apple product battling with the iPhone for the top spots in news coverage? So I thought, well, maybe they’d only seed the review units of the iPhone on September 12, with the new-size iPad going into reviewer hands a few weeks later.
But the more I think about it, the less sense it makes for the iPhone to even share the stage at the announcement with any other product. The iPhone is too big, too cool, and garners too much attention — and it’s in Apple’s interest to keep that attention undiluted.
I’m thinking it makes more sense for Apple to hold two events. First, an iPhone event, focused solely on the new iPhone and iOS 6. Then, the iPhone ships nine days later, and there’s another wave of iPhone-focused attention as the reviews come out. Then, in the first or second week of October, Apple holds its traditional “music event”, exactly along the lines of the events at which they’ve been debuting new iPods for the last decade. (Maybe more of an “iTunes event” than just “music event”, given the rise of other media like TV shows, movies, and books.1)
An event where the iPad Air (cool, but just a smaller thinner cheaper iPad), new iPod Touch (cool, but just an iPhone without the phone), and maybe even new or at least updated iPod music players (eh) share the stage, tied together with the theme of consuming iTunes media content — that I can buy.
I think Daring Fireball is thinking this through well, but missing a key piece: Christmas.
I don’t think Apple would be willing (or able) to convince journalists to come for two events in a short timeframe. There’s goodwill among the coverage team you have to consider here.
If Apple wants the iPad mini (or whatever they name it) to be in the market and being marketed for the Christmas season, it has to be announced and the push on by October 1. Maybe October 15 at the absolute latest. Look at past Apple releases; if it’s not announced by early October, it doesn’t get announced until January. The engines of blurb need to get churning, and the closer to Christmas you get the more your product announcements get lost in the holiday noise, and the more you make it impossible for your reseller partners to push the product. If you want to be in the catalogs and the national advertising for a place like Best Buy or Amazon, they have lead times. If you miss October 1, their campaigns take off without you.
Could Apple do two events between mid-September and early October? Probably. Would that annoy the journos and analysts? probably. Is it really necessary?
Probably not. So my view is the lesser evil is one event, pushing IOS 6, the new iPhone, of which a lot of info has already leaked, so it almost feels like they’ll be confirming (and refuting) rumors, and this new mini-iPad, which will be the bigger splash of the two. Any new iPod Touch is relegated to an after-event press release, because honestly, it doesn’t warrant that much play.
This article was posted on Chuq Von Rospach, Photographer and Author at Apple’s product launches. This article is copyright 2013 by Chuq Von Rospach under a Creative Commons license for non-commericial use only with attribution. See the web site for details on the usage policy.