By SteveJack
It’s late Sunday morning on the East coast of the United States and, in a clear sign that I am among the deranged, the waiting is painful for Tuesday’s Apple Computer earnings report and financial results conference call plus Wednesday’s “One more thing” special event.
For those not in “The Cult,” those who haven’t had a drop of the Kool-Aid, this is just another Sunday morning. Maybe they’ll be going to church, taking a nap later, trying to clean malware off their Windows PCs, watching the baseball game or some football, seeing if John Daly can hold off Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, or, ironically, listening to their iPods. They just don’t understand.
For “the rest of us,” this Sunday morning means that we have too long to wait for two days that promise to be as big as that magical few days that come every January when Apple earnings and Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo keynote combine to form the perfect Apple storm.
This Tuesday, October 11, Apple will release their fourth quarter 2005 earnings report after the closing market bell. Shortly thereafter, at 5pm ET, Apple will webcast the audio of their Q4 05 quarterly earnings conference call to discuss financial results with analysts. The consensus of analysts surveyed by Thompson/First Call expect Apple (AAPL) to earn $0.36 per share on revenue of $3.68 billion. In the year ago quarter, Q4 04, Apple earned $0.14 per share on revenue of $2.35 billion and shipped 836,000 Macintosh units and 2,016,000 iPod units. In the last completed quarter, Q3 05, Apple earned $0.37 per share on revenue of $3.52 billion and shipped 1,182,000 Macintosh units and 6,155,000 iPod units.
Okay, the earnings announcement/conference call happens four times a year. It’s a pretty big deal just by itself. But, then on Wednesday, October 12, at 1:00 pm ET, Apple will hold their “One More Thing” special media event at the California Theater in San Jose, California. What the event will reveal has been subject to thousands of articles and theories already. Expect quite a few more in the upcoming days.
I’m not going to add to the conjecture here, but I will say that Apple must be very confident of a strong earnings report to have scheduled the special media event for the very next day. And only Apple can inspire such outright crazed anticipation in its customers.
People who aren’t “Macheads” just don’t understand this excruciating anticipation experience we’re all going through now and in the upcoming days (you’re probably one of them if you’re reading this). Just remember, you’re not alone. Only 52 hours and 45 minutes until for the earnings release, 53 hours and 15 minutes for the conference call, and 73 hours and 15 minutes for the special media event left to go! Are you feeling it, too?
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
My Guess writes: “PS I really hope I’m completely wrong”
Not to worry, you are.
No way Steve’s leaving Apple before he walks all over Bill Gates.
And no way this is about a pink iPod. I doubt it’s even about a vPod (although both may very well be announced).
This is definitely about video, though. And it’s definitely a BIG announcement. My guess is a Mac mini AV as centerpiece, with at least an Airport Express AV, and possibly an iPod AV.
There may be an iTMS AV announcement too. Unlike some, i don’t think it’s necessary to launch with that though. Just a Mac centered DVR is sufficient. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see Apple lining up old TV shows before movies (probably easier to get the rights). But lets not forget that Pixar will be one of the first studios lined up (can you spell “slam-dunk”?)
From, ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ –
Yzma: “Take it Kronk. Oh, hohohoho… feel the power!”
Kronk: “Oh, I can feel it.”
Yzma: “Our moment of triumph approaches! Hahahahaha!! It’s dinner time!”
Well, I hope it isn’t a video pod because I think that they are doomed just like small screen TVs. I can walk, drive, and do all sorts of things (no comments!) while I listen to something. But watching something commands my attention. I need my visual channel. If I am going to be stationary then I might as well have a decent sized picture. Thus ship it to me on my computer. So maybe iTunes will get a big brother like iFilm (taken) or iFlick (gross) that will specialize in getting and presenting movies and ship it off through Airport Express to your big screen HDTV.
I am just hoping for an upgrade to the powermac. I want to have one last upgrade (from my lowly G4 quicksilver) before I go to one of the big Intel dudes.
PS. I love the flash OS idea. Why hasn’t someone done that? There must be a reason.
Ya know, people who aren’t alcoholics just don’t understand the need to drink…
I’ve got wonder what Steve Jobs really thinks of all the people who hang on every little thing he does…
Probably not much (other than just keep spending your dough on his products).
Sorry, I just don’t get the blind devotion – and I’ve been an Apple customer since the days of the //e.
the ripcord, and hope good ol’ Steve lands safely. <@>|<@>
CT =====]———– Manufacturing and packing his own ‘chutes
Who gives RATS ASS about what they are going to announce.
I just wish they’d fix Safari so it takes less than 10 mintues to load a webpage.
Don’t forget to leave a glass of milk and a cookie for Steve on the table the night before.
“And it’s UTC, not GMT anymore”
You can call it all the fancy made-up names you like, but it’s still GMT!
“Asteroid”
Think about it…
My take is that Jobs thinks a pink Nano is a really big deal.
How could he introduce a pink Nano that he thinks is a big deal
and a video IPOD at the same time? All I can say is that he really
is going to disappointment a lot of people if there isnt a video
IPOD behind those curtains. Im pissed that Apple doesnt have
the best plasma t v in the business and or a blackberry type
phone.
The difference between Apple and Sony is that Sony is a real innovator
and a real entertainment company. In common they both have intel inside.
I am no fanatic but I will have spare brown underpants for Wednesday’s announcement.
I believe you’re firing from the wrong end, my friend. Whatever turns you on, I guess.
I just wish they’d fix Safari so it takes less than 10 mintues to load a webpage.
There’s always Camino and Shiira and even iCab 3.5.x and counting… some better than others for specific tasks.
Ok.. I can’t believe I am being sucked into this sillyness, but here goes. Please understand that I think we have probably already nailed what is really going to be announced Wednesday, since every reasonable base has been covered, but inspired by the velvet curtains I want to add the following crazy and unrealistic fantasies:
Some kind of camcorder with and ipod dock. The video goes straight to the ipod HD. It works as an audio recorder and digital camera too of course, hell, let’s say it also works as a portable digital VCR too.
Alternatively, an ipod with a camera built in.
A mac mini with a built in projector.
A highly portable projector or display that connects to a video ipod (or computer). Is there such a thing as a high definition projector?
Some kind of weird-ass head set or goggles to let allow you to actually see something when you play a movie from your ipod.
Some kind of lap top-like device but smaller and simpler – maybe with a 6 or 8 inch display. Billed as a high end multimedia ipod and hand-held.
Apple home media center with massive HD display, ipod dock and computer built in. Includes surround speakers, bluetooth remote, keyboard and pointing device.
Apple is getting into the ISP and/or cable or satellite TV business. Perhaps pay-per-view movie service or Itunes store for sattelite TV, new software for using the mac as a tivo type system, all seamlessly integrated of course.
The merger of PIXAR and Apple to yield a major studio, media producer and record label, maybe with the help of the other (Beatles) Apple.
er… oh, oh….. I know….. its a waterproof floating G5 powerbook you can use in the bath, in fact, to deal with the cooling issues, you can ONLY use it in the bath. The great part is that it keeps the water nice and warm.