“Much work has gone on at San Francisco’s Bill Graham convention center and Apple has acknowledged they are having an event there next week,” Electric Phred writes for Seeking Alpha. “Entire lanes of traffic have been blocked off by massive generators and air conditioners… Lots of SFPD and rent a cops are posted at every entrance and at the air conditioners in the first picture. None of them have much to say. One mumbled, ‘They had to take a lot of stuff out and put a lot of stuff in.'”
“Two guys guarding a stack of chairs in front of the adjacent City Hall said work had been going on for weeks,” Phred writes. “A camera crew filming something entirely different on the steps of City Hall said they’d run a piece yesterday supposing this was another Apple event. Knowing that the camera man knows all and wished he could tell all, Electric Phred quizzed him and got this response, ‘A friend who works for Local 616, Stagehands, has been working on it for weeks but has no idea what its for.’ (Boy must he have job satisfaction.)”
“What sort of unveiling needs a 7000 seat venue, weeks of work, and likely millions of dollars? This wouldn’t seem to me to be just the unveiling of the iPhone 6s or the iPad Pro,” Phred writes. “I am betting we may see the Apple electric vehicle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Flying car.
Or maybe Apple’s simply decided to finally act like the world’s most valuable company and stop trying to shove everyone into a shoebox for events?
SEE ALSO:
Apple to reveal ‘something big’ on September 9th – August 27, 2015
It’s official: Apple sends out September 9th special event invitations – August 27, 2015
Apple expected to hold massive special event at Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco on September 9th – August 27, 2015
Mystery company books San Francisco’s massive Bill Graham Civic Auditorium through September 13th – August 24, 2015
If it is an electric vehicle, then it might be the one doing the seeing! 🙂
But having read of the large amount of negotiations carrying on between Apple inc. and German motor companies, I doubt it…
I would lean in favour of MDN’s hypothesis.
Expect something surprising.
Actually, don’t.
It’s not going to be a car, jeez people.
They way Apple is pushing Music, I’m betting on a concert.
Just thinking out loud – While I think an announcement of a car is a long shot, it is a product you cannot develop an secret. In 2007 when jobs announced the iPhone six months before release, he knew it would need FCC approval. Development of a car could take years and could not be kept secret. Maybe they’re going to show their future vision of what a car from Apple might be. A car that might come to market in two or three years.
My first thought was maybe they’re prepping for a big music act and a big concert (ie, U2 or Taylor Swift). I discounted this thought because I don’t see Apple focusing the event on music when the new product should be the focus. Not Apple music
You are correct, an apple car would have already had papers filed with the required agencies. (And “spy” photos would be out there)
If Apple has not.. The car would be in the mock up stages and would not be for “sale” for many many years.
It is bad enough some asshat writes this garbage.
But even worse is rumor mills and tech hack “journalism” sites pass it on.
they are clearly going after the tv market. they are going to reshoot the finale of seinfeld
So Newman ends up in jail instead?
The iPhone itself could need this event. Apple is now a large global company. There is more press who wants to be there. A easy way to get bad press is to block reporters, even if you don’t want to. Apple wants as many reporters watching the show and then seeing them first hand. Of course Apple never has just new product. Cars will probably be there to show off CarPlay and the models that have them. I can even see a fake house to show off the new Apple TV and connected appliances.
Even if Apple is working on a car there are no factories yet or places to sell them. That is not easy to hide. I’m doubtful Apple will get in that game. I believe their poaching from Tesla has more to do with batteries. They are a portable company. The first Mac had a handle; so does today’s Mac Pro. If they could make an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook last days on a charge no one could touch them.
One more ridiculous rumor for Wall Street to be disappointed over if it doesn’t show up. I say it’s not going to happen. No projects like that are going to show up until after Apple moves into its new headquarters. So far, Apple doesn’t even have its own test track for vehicle development. I’m pretty certain that’s a necessary thing for all car companies to have.
So that’s why the new campus is round a test track in the basement or like Fiat on the roof.
No.
The guess of it being a car is not a bad guess. The venue seems much too large for the iPhone or TV. It could be the TV along with the buildout of a house on stage where its many “things” are demonstrated as being integrated and controlled via the new Apple TV. But, I kind of like the car idea since why go to all the trouble of building a house when all of that could better be demonstrated with video. It has to be the car!
How many are being invited?
Have any auto executives received invitations? Is anyone from BMW attending, since they are the ones most frequently mentioned in regards to a car?
I like the idea of them introducing the car early and letting the market know its coming. Talk about vaporware and introducing FUD into the car markets! Buyers will be held in place for the next 2-3 years waiting for Apple’s car.
The car will initially be manufactured in the US by Ford and GM (followed by manufacturing sites in China, Brazil, Mexico, France and Russia), and powered by Intelligent Energy’s (now an Apple owned company) new 100Kwh fuel cell using a unique new powder-based hydrogen cell to be sold worldwide at gas stations, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Apple Store, Amazon, etc.
The car will have a mini-SUV design and be tightly integrated with Apple’s ecosystem.
It will come in three or four colors matching the new iPhone 6s. lol
Well, whatever, it sure makes it even more interesting than it always turns out to be.
Now that I say the above, the more I think about it the less sense it makes.
If they did introduce the car, even a peek at the car, the press would go nuts. News of the new iPhone and TV would get buried. No way they are going to be introducing the car.
As for another prediction, I say they introduce the iPhone mini (3.5 inch screen — very cool — and the one I will be buying) at the same time they introduce the iPad Maxi.
The biggest and smallest Apple mobile communication devices.
Assuming Apple will build a car someday, there’s no way they would have Ford or GM build it for them. Traditional automakers do not have the technical know how to build advanced automobiles like the Tesla for example. They are dinosaurs ready to be extinguished.
And, no, Apple is not revealing a car on September 9.
They need a bigger venue because they will reveal a bigger iPad, a bigger AppleTV, a bigger macbook, a bigger iPhone, a bigger Apple Watch and a bigger Tim Cook…
This is real. The venue has seatbelts on every seat. Clue?
2000 comfortable seats and a generous, contained “try it out” area for the new things. No car.
Say it was a car….where are they going to sell it? Be too big for stores, be online only? But people would want to see it first, etc.
Its the Apple Car and when they lift up the back hatch during the presentation you’ll see a 50 inch Apple TV pop out cause the car will drive itself and obviously you’ll need to be entertained!
If they do make a car, it’d better fly, run on greenhouse gases, and by-produce electricity that it delivers to the grid via microwaves—otherwise it will be panned as a complete flop, 10x worse than Samsung’s car.
The invitation said “give us a hint”, not ‘give us a dent’…
What kind of idiot comes up with drivel like this? Oh wait – it’s Seeking Alpha, the amateur fustercluck train wreck website for failed investors. I never take anything from Seeking Alpha seriously, and I urge you not to either. This is a perfect case in point.
First, a new car design, even from the largest manufacturers, takes at least five years on average to design and make ready for production.
Second, while there is growing evidence that Apple has some sort of interest in cars, there is nothing to show beyond rumor and speculation.
Third, even if Apple is interested in producing something for the auto industry, contrary to the breathless and unsubstantiated rumors, there is no hard evidence that the “something” would even be a car. Why could it not be that Apple is interested in an operating system for a driverless car? Or software solutions (including an OS) that Apple would sell to established manufacturers instead of producing a car of its own?
Typically, even when you see spy photos of prototypes from Detroit, Tokyo, Germany, Italy, etc., the prototype cars being tested may never see the light of day, or may be years away from final production. We have not even seen that.
Even the Google driverless car is merely a proof of concept at this stage, and is likely some years from a final design.
MDN, please, please, please stop running anything from Seeking Alpha. It does more harm than good, both for Apple product users and investors in general. Some of their articles talk an interesting game, but typically end up being wildly inaccurate. To follow the advice of these misguided amateurs could be extremely dangerous to your investment portfolio. Personally, anything from Seeking Alpha should come with a warning label.
Will we see the ‘Apple Car’ on September 9th?
A pathetic excuse for an August Effect article. Why even bother? 😛