Rumor: Apple Scheduling Retail Employee Meetings On May 28th Ahead of Lion and iCloud Debut

By

closedapplestore

Cult of Mac has learned Apple could be scheduling secret employee meetings with retail staff on May 28th between 8 and 10am. Is this just pre-WWDC preparations, or something more?

Reader Chris Davis of Fresno, CA writes:

Yesterday, 5/12/11, I was at the Apple store in Fresno, CA. I was visiting the Genius Bar and while there I could see into the back room where the employees are frequently enter and exit. I couldn’t see very far in but I could see a bulletin board right inside the the door. One posting on the board had the iCal logo and said May 28 BE HERE 8AM-10AM. Looks like they are having an employee meeting.

WWDC is scheduled for June 6th, a little over a week after the date of the rumored employee meeting. With an iPhone 5 unlikely to ship until September, the most likely products that Apple would be preparing employees for is OS X 10.7 Lion, due out this summer, and their relaunch of MobileMe, rumored to be called iCloud and featuring a streaming music locker component, similar to Google Music Beta or Amazon Cloud Locker. If Apple is scheduling an all-hands employee meeting with its retail workers, it’s most likely to prep them for the imminent release of these two products.

Yet there’s reason to be skeptical. Apple has tended to hold all-hands employee meetings on Sunday evenings after stores close, according to reports. This would seem to break with tradition.

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