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iPad Pre-Orders Start 5.30AM PST on Friday, Says Apple PR [Updated]

Update 2: Apple is sending out emails confirming the 5.30 AM PST/8.30 AM EST time, according to TidBits and others. Emails were sent to customers who signed up for pre-order info (I signed up but didn’t get the message for some reason).
Update: Reader Bob Penn says the staff at his local Apple store insists that [...]

Screaming Fast New MacBook Pros and Mac Pro Desktops Next Week? [UPDATE: Maybe No MacBooks]

UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says.
Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip [...]

Steve Jobs #136 on Forbes World Billionaire List

Steve Jobs may be one of the most admired CEOs in the tech industry even if he’s not the richest.
Jobs ranked 136 — down from up 43 spots since last year — in the annual Forbes list of billionaires, far behind Bill Gates (no. 2), Larry Ellison (6), Google founder Sergey Brin (24), Steve [...]

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With just a few weeks to go before the iPad hits stores, here’s the best way to ensure you’re at the head of the line to get one (or three).
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Munster: Macworld Exit Hints At Apple ‘Leadership Shift’

Cishore/Flickr

Photo: Cishore/Flickr

Apple’s withdraw from Macworld Expo marks “the beginning of a shift in leadership roles,” Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster told investors Wednesday.

The decision by CEO Steve Jobs to bypass a keynote speech in favor of marketing head Phil Schiller, sends “a clear message that a leadership shift is underway,” Munster wrote in a note.

This isn’t the first time onlookers have attempted to read Apple’s intentions through trade show speaker selection. In October, the inclusion of Schiller and Tim Cook prompted questions of a potential exit by Jobs.

While Munster described Jobs as “the irreplaceable face of Apple,” the Cupertino, Calif. company has entered the “early stages of changing roles in Apple management.”

Jobs, while an important piece of Apple’s revitalization, didn’t accomplish it solo. Munster said Apple management was key to new product success.

After the announcement that Jobs won’t appear at Macworld, the analyst judged the possibility of any Earth-shattering product releases – such as a new iPhone – as “less likely.”

Wednesday, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner downgraded shares to “perform” from “outperform” after telling clients Apple’s lack of an apparent succession plan “underscored the greatest risk to Apple’s long-term success.”

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About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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2 comments

    Perhaps Apple doesn’t have any big announcement this time. Remember the crap they had to put up with when Jobs put on the shoe for what was seen as just a bunch of updates earlier this year? That leads me to think we’ll have no big announcements at Macworld, maybe nothing more than an updated Pro.

    Saving Jobs for big announcements will increase their impact and tamp down expectations for non-Steve keynotes. And it also “auditions” new leadership.

    Macworld is a terrible time for product announcement anyway. Wait until spring or back to school in the fall or right before christmas. Apple is much larger than Macworld. I applaud this decision from the greatest innovative design company currently on the planet.
    They have something up their sleeves. It will be fun to watch it unfold over the next few months.

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