“The charismatic leader and co-founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, plans to summons the worldwide media to a special event next week in which he’ll usher in a new chapter in the company’s digital media strategy,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
“Although the semi-official word out of Apple Americas is that invitations to the event have “not been sent” out, a seemingly inadvertent leak out of Apple Europe last week pinned the affair for Tuesday, September 12. It will be hosted by Jobs in a yet-to-be disclosed California location and beamed via satellite throughout the world,” Jade reports.
“Jobs is expected to announce that flicks from at least one major studio will be immediately available for download starting at just $9.99 a pop… Jobs many months ago commissioned an elite group of Apple engineers to get the ball rolling on an intuitive hardware solution that would more closely tie the company’s digital media strategy to the living-room. And so AppleInsider has been told, Apple has been quietly developing a video streaming device that will interface with an updated version of its iTunes jukebox software,” Jade reports.
Jade reports, “It’s arguably been one of the most closely guarded secrets at Apple since the evolution of the first iPod digital music player, which forever altered the landscape of the music industry when it was introduced in October of 2001. Only a select bunch inside Cupertino have heard of the latest device and even fewer have seen it. Therefore, further details are few and far between.”
“Next week’s media event will bear the fruits of several other Apple product initiatives. First and foremost, insiders have said, will be an introduction of the company’s largest and most stunning iMac to date: a widescreen, possibly high-definition model, built around what appears to be a 23-inch display. As AppleInsider reported last week, existing iMac models will also be refreshed around Intel Corp.’s new Core 2 Duo mobile processors, formerly reference by the ‘Merom’ moniker,” Jade reports. “With dozens of tractor-trailer-mounted container ships seen leaving Foxconn’s Far East manufacturing facilities over the past week, Apple’s next-generation iPod nano digital music players also appears to be a lock for the event.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
RUMOR: Apple to launch iMac Core 2 Duo, movie store, new iPods on September 12th – September 04, 2006
RUMOR: Apple to debut 23-inch iMac Core 2 Duo on September 12th – September 01, 2006
BusinessWeek: iTunes movie downloads and new ‘wider screen’ iPod by mid-September – September 01, 2006
Wal-Mart not happy with looming threat of Apple iTunes movie downloads – August 31, 2006
Lions Gate CEO slips, says films coming to iTunes – August 17, 2006
ABI Research: iTunes could be Apple’s ‘Trojan Horse’ in home audio-video market – July 27, 2006
Apple’s ITunes Movie Store to offer feature film downloads that can be burned to DVD? – July 19, 2006
Does Apple face delivery issue if they want to sell movies via iTunes Store? – June 28, 2006
Apple prepares debut of full-length feature films via iTunes Store in time for 2006 holiday season – June 20, 2006
Report: Movie studios flatly reject Apples’ proposed $9.99 pricing for feature films via iTunes – June 19, 2006
Report: Apple in negotiations with movie studios; $9.99 feature films coming to iTunes soon? – June 19, 2006
New Apple iPods coming? Major Aussie retailers slash iPod prices up to 80% – September 01, 2006
Apple’s ‘touchless’ touchscreen iPod revealed – July 25, 2006
More info surfaces regarding Apple’s latest iPod touch-screen patent filing – July 21, 2006
Hon Hai Chairman: Apple about to unveil next-gen iPod using a ‘none-touch’ concept – June 15, 2006
Rumor: Intel and Apple working on ‘intelligent device’ – August 22, 2006
Apple CEO Steve Jobs talks up much-rumored ‘iPhone’ iPod mobile phone – August 11, 2006
Is this Apple’s iPhone? – August 03, 2006
BofA ups Apple Computer to ‘buy,’ expects ‘iPhone’ in 2007, shares rise in early trading – July 31, 2006
Not sitting around doing nothing: ‘iPhone’ could add billions to Apple’s revenue – July 21, 2006
Apple CFO on iPhone: ‘we’re not sitting around doing nothing’ – July 20, 2006
Merrill Lynch ups Apple rating to ‘buy’; UBS raises Apple target to $80 – July 20, 2006
Apple Q3 2006 Conference Call notes – July 19, 2006
iPhone, iPod messenger clues in latest iPod firmware update – July 17, 2006
Patent application shows iPod capable of live wireless video conferencing – June 13, 2006
Bear Stearns comments on Apple: ‘true’ video iPod, iPhone, multiple OS plans – May 17, 2006
Apple patent application filed for wireless iPod+iTunes distribution – May 04, 2006
Report: Apple Computer may soon launch its own music ‘iPhone’ – March 31, 2006
RUMOR: Apple ‘iPhone’ put on hold – March 30, 2006
Visiongain: Apple ‘iPhone’ launch imminent – March 29, 2006
BenQ exec: Apple’s iPhone ‘definitely coming’ – March 23, 2006
Airport Express 2 here we come!
And tomorrow morning will bring both speed bumped MacBooks and Mac minis as well.
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I think we’re about to embark on a new and exciting journey.
$9.99 and $14.99 is definitely more than I expected, and it’ll probably be US-only (again!).
Thankfully, Canada still has the lowest price for music of all iTMSs — $0.99 and no taxes (not sure why).
20 inch iMac has just gone out to 5 days wait in the UK store. It was quoting 24 hour delivery earlier today.
MacBook is at 7 days but suspect that’s just because they’re selling an awful lot of them…
*YAWN*
We got a Zune brick, Fails4Sure and Windows XP3….errr Longhorn… errr Vista.
Mooo.
I own 61 Oct 70 Calls, and 100 Jan 80 Calls. If this rumor proves correct, I will be a VERY happy man.
My nipples are exploding with anticipation,
<i>If this rumor proves correct, I will be a VERY happy man.<i>
Goody for you. Buy some cookies with it.
“possibly high-definition”
Duh?
“I’ll wager 9.99 quatloos on the newcomer!!”
tractor-trailer mounted,container SHIPS!!
that i’d like to see. Tractor trailer mounted containers, on their way to the ships, less interesting.
Greg,
Don’t get too happy…. with 70 and 100, I don’t think you’re going to be retiring soon.
expect the new mini with much higher capacity, kinda like xserve compact as consumer home server.
I’d rather use Vongo on my PC to watch movies. It’s a better deal.
AirPort Express 2? I prefer AirPort Express AV!
Spam, Rumors, and noise.
I say, hold your cheering until the skinny guy in the black sweater and jeans, sings.
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N.
I hope that they give the MacBooks merom. please oh please. I’m waiting to buy one. Then I’ll want to wait for the santa Rosa platforms to come out. Oh why did Apple have to switch to Intel, these product upgrades are too much for me to handle.
Ya know, $9.99 is just too much, for this reason: I prefer to OWN all my music, but only RENT most (say 95%) of my movies. Plus if I want to own a movie, I’ll almost definitely buy it on DVD (or an HD version in the next year or so). I sincerely doubt for $9.99 I’ll be getting DVD quality on those downloads.
So… as opposed to the music model (and the TV episode model, which is cheap enough that I’ll “buy” them just to watch once), I don’t think a movie model like this will work.
Now if they have a rental price too (some time-limited thing) for, say, $4 for a lower-quality version, I’d say that would make the whole idea a lot more appealing.
Just my 2 cents.
I agree, 9.99 a movie is silly these days with Netflicks and blockbuster and yeah Vongo seems like a great deal.
I think we will see speed upgrades and maybe if we are lucky a release date for Leopard. That might be sooner than anyone thought. As for a new ipod, maybe, but ipods now are still the most kicking mp3 on the market and its gonna take more than zune or moon or june to take the spotlight. A new player would need to be wireless to the internet from anywhere and allow you to browse and buy music on the go.
So, the allegations against Foxconn was to allow outsiders to see what was being made there???
I just love conspiracy theories… It makes the day go by….
media xserves
I’m not really much of a video guy, so this may not make sense, but John’s post makes me wonder: If the movies you can buy from the iTunes Music Store are HD, does the price and delivery mechanism make sense then? I mean, everyone is arguing about Blu-Ray or … whatever the other format is called … but why get your HD movies on plastic at all? Apple could do the end-around and trump the HD DVD format question.
There is no way you will get HD movies from iTunes. Even on broadband, it would take all day to download. A 2 hour HD movie would probably be somewhere in the 30 gigabyte range.
These movies will be the same as the tv shows. 320×240. And there will be plenty of suckers who will pay for these for the convenience instead of buying the DVD.
Well, then how about a choice of download speeds? That’s what quicktime does already. Existing iPod resolution is too low for movies.
There is no way you will get HD movies from iTunes
True, you won’t.
But the new iPod is 16:9 aspect ratio, instead of 4:3 like it is now.
So it’s anticipation of taking high def movies and simply reducing them to fit on the new iPod.
Another thing about the new iPods, no hard drives. All flash based. Shock and scratch resistant too.
Your going to like what your going to see.
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Am I the only one hoping for a bluetooth remote instead of IR for iMac?
How can you say these movies will be the same as the TV shows? Did you not read the article? They are hinting on a streaming device that will allow you to wathc as you download (rental) and getting a decent quality movie that will play on a widescreen TV while being rather large can come in around 1 Gig with good compression. While we are doing the “my predictions” thing , I say watch for a new way of video compression developed by Apple that only works with their devices and maintains good home TV quality at decent file sizes. With HD’s (internal and external) getting into the 700gig range a 2 gig movie isn’t so bad.
Secret Agent Man,
I know you’ve been dropping hints for a while now, other people don’t believe you (they can’t handle the truth), but I do! Can’t wait to see the new iPods
No HD all the way sounds like what Apple WOULD do to stay ahead of the game – take that SanDisk you loosers!
Apple’s buying Blockbuster?
Yes, Stud, yes you are. Put down the blue pills and step away from the remote.
If the Airport AV comes out I am certain it will have composite or S-Video output for Standard Definition video at best. HD content might be feasable for movie trailers but there is no way ninety minute films would be downloaded this way. Apple will most likely focus on content for iPods and sell videos that are 320 X 180 for compatibility with 5G iPods or 640 X 360 for the rumoured touch-screen iPod. Do not forget that Apple are on-board with Blue Ray and want the format to succeed so any films sold on iTunes would compliment HD video, not compete with it.
iTunes will not sell 9.99-14.99 low resolution videos of movies and expect to succeed. No one will buy Bridge On The River Kwai the size of a Heath bar.
“Apple’s buying Blockbuster?”
Yes, of course they are…
Robert X. Cringely predicted it months ago…
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060216.html
MW: make. You just can’t make this stuff up!
Cringely also predicted that when Apple started selling movies (which he said would be HD), iTunes would be converted into a peer-to-peer client for the distribution.
Is Steve Jobs a prosecutor?
In the UK “summons” is a police term. “Summon” would project a better image!
9.99$ is a joke. DVD-movies cost almost that much and DVD rent cost about 3-4$ here in europe. Why would I pay 9.99$ for digital copy and download it about 8 hours (presume I have 512 adsl and the apple movies are atleast fair quality) when I can walk 5 minutes, rent a DVD and rip it to my Mac?
Making the facts fit:
How foolish would El Stevo look if he got onstage in Paris and announced a movie download service that is only being rolled out in North America for now?
Hence the presentation is from Cupertino instead of Paris.
The reason is not his health as that would make the recent annoucement misleading to the stock exchange.
The movie download service will be North America store only.
Those of us in the UK better get something!!
( Airport AV AND a new nano next week will ease the pain )
i would love to see a core 2 duo macbook pro – but then do i buy it…or wait for the new santa rosa platform?? how much waiting can one do
MW= product: still running an ibook G3, dual usb – waiting for the right product to upgrade to
“Apple plans blockbuster product announcements next Tuesday”
A updated iPod and larger iMar are hardly “blockbuster” product announcements.
i’m wondering why they’d update both laptops to the merom instead of only updating the pro. There would be more to differentiate the product line, and you wouldn’t hear the pro member bitching like they did when the macbook came out.
iPod movies unveiled
http://www.ipodhub.net/330/2006/9/04/ipod-movies-unveiled/
Pricing is expected to be from $9.99 to $14.99.
Crazy. Who is the desparate person with cash to waste that would buy a crappy quality movie via the internet?
Since this is all guessing, it’s $9.98 – $14.98. Feel better?
A rental system would work… but not at $4 etc. I can get a lot of movies in a month from Netflix for $25 (4 at a time). Now, if Netflix combined forces with Apple and movies were downloadable right away, well then you have something.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t pay 9.99 outright for a digital file of a movie. I much prefer getting the DVD.
Maybe they’ll be selling dvd’s coupled with iPod versions?
This is how it will be done….
remember this…http://news.com.com/Apple+enters+legal+battle+with+Burst.com/2100-1047_3-6021994.html
and this……http://news.com.com/Burst.com+sues+Apple+for+patent+infringement/2100-1047_3-6062067.html
check this out….http://www.burst.com/new/tour/1.htm
Forget the original iMac, it’s Columbus! Finaly. Or maybe that anti-gravity device Jobs teased us with many years ago.
I have heard from very reliable sources that they are bringing back the Color Classic. This time it has an LCD and of course the intel processor.
It is aimed at the 14yr old and below crowd.
I will be the first buyer…I love the 9″ screen macs.
Where did all of this Sept. 12th Apple event originate?
I heard it was from YourMacLife.com. Well, Shawn King from YML now claims to have guessed the Sept. 12th date from the “anonymous” e-mail he got sent which stated simply the second week of September. So far, there has been no official invites. Is there any official confirmation that anyone knows about?
http://yourmaclife.com/
Check this out!
http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2006/09/apple_announces_press_event_fo.html
That’s BETTER!!!!!