(Update: Looks like we were right to be skeptical. GigaOm has since corrected their post to say they mistakenly published an old press release.)
In what we hope is a return from his medical leave of absence, Apple has apparently just confirmed that Steve Jobs will be the official keynote speaker at this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference.
Although there’s no official confirmation on Apple’s news site yet, the tip comes who GigaOm, speaking with conviction and which has a reliable record on such rumors.
If true, this is great news. Although Steve Jobs made an appearance to reveal the iPad 2, there was the feeling of a lark to that one, as if he just couldn’t resist being there. An appearance at WWDC might indicate that Jobs health has improved, and is ready to return to day-by-day duties at Apple.
On the other hand, there’s reason to be skeptical. So far, this story is being attributed to one source, which makes reference to an official announcement that, as near as we can tell, Apple hasn’t actually released yet. GigaOm is a solid site, not prone to exploitive traffic or misleading headlines, but there’s reason to be cautious for right now.
This is a breaking story. More — including Apple’s official announcement — when we get it.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
14 responses to “Steve Jobs To Give Keynote At WWDC 2011? [Update: Nope]”
http://www.apple.com/pr/librar…
You do realize that the link is for 2010. Right?
TOOL!! Read the date on the press release.
Fail, you seriously don’t even read an article before posting it? This is why the blog can never be a true news source
Wrong year…
That press release is for 2010.
Och!
My calendar thinks we are 5 months into 2011.
Personally I don’t think that Jobs will ever officially return to duty. He’ll just keep doing his ‘consulting’ style, coming and go, giving feedback, video conferencing etc from home. But Cook will continue to be the official name on the CEO line. Eventually they drop “acting” from his title and it will be weeks before anyone notices because they are too busy talking about this or that awesome thing that was just released.
I mean lets face it, if anyone is waiting for Jobs to be healthy again, give up. It ain’t happening. The man had a major form of cancer and a liver transplant. Healthy is a very relative term at this point. The stress etc that led him to needing this break will just keep happening over and over if he is cracking the whip himself. What he needs is a full overhaul of his life if he wants it to last a long time. And that’s what he did by taking this break. Better to give up the reins now when he’s there to guide the transition than to have him keel over dead and bam, new CEO