Apple’s upcoming 2010 Worldwide Developer Conference, starting June 7 in San Francisco, is a bit like celebrating Christmas Day after already knowing what will be under the tree. Yes, CEO Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote address, but otherwise, there is “little room for surprise,” a prominent Apple analyst said Wednesday.
With talk of the upcoming next-generation iPhone splashed across blogs and television newscasts like some messy Hollywood divorce, all that’s left for Apple to do is fill in the details. The handset will likely have a front-facing camera useful for video conferencing, longer battery life and thinner design, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster told investors. Munster calls the WWDC a “non-event” for Apple stock.
Although speculation over when Verizon will start selling iPhones has reached a near fever pitch, Munster is advising clients think long-term.
“We believe that it is unlikely that the next generation iPhone will be available at Verizon (or Sprint) at launch; rather, it it more likely that it remains exclusively available at AT&T in the U.S. at launch,” writes Munster.
After speculation that Verizon would gain a foothold in iPhone sales this year died down, a rumor floated earlier this month seemed to reignite passions. A Crunchgear report intimated that the carrier would receive the nod this September. Soon afterwards, a report suggested a Taiwan component maker was producing a CDMA iPhone.
AT&T fueled speculation, first commenting that changing carriers might retain iPhone owners, then nearly doubling the early-termination fee for smartphone users. Tuesday, an analyst told investors AT&T could lose up to 40 percent of its iPhone owners if Verizon entered the picture.
Apple won’t be able to offer a lower-priced iPhone as a surprise. Munster said Apple could unveil a $99 iPhone by either introducing a newer device or replacing the low-end iPhone 3G with a sub-$100 iPhone 3Gs. That move was also telegraphed before Jobs’ took the WWDC stage. Tuesday, retail giant Walmart announced it would cut the price for a 16GB iPhone 3Gs to $97. The well-connected Boy Genius Report blog also reported that Apple had stopped shipping the iPhone 3G to AT&T stores, suggesting the Cupertino, Calif. company would replace the 3G with the 3Gs as the new low-end handset.
[via AppleInsider]
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.
