WWDC: No European satellite feed

Jonny Evans
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May 30, 2008
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 Here in the land of Mac we’ve been gleefully wishing May out of the way as we wait in excitement for Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote session at WWDC this year - we all hope the company will announce the next-generation iPhone during the event.

We still do.

However, we’ve just learned that Apple will not be holding an exclusive invite-only media event in London during the keynote session. And while the keynote is expected to be made available on video after the event, there will be no chance in Europe for people outside of Apple to watch what Jobs says as it happens.

This may mean nothing at all, but given Apple’s penchant in recent years for inviting select media to the BBC for a chance to watch a satellite feed of the Jobs-note, we’re beginning to wonder if there’s a reason the company doesn’t plan to invite them this time.

We all anticipate Apple will introduce the 3G iPhone at the show, but Apple has previously only said it intends the keynote to focus on Mac OS X and iPhone software development. What if it meant what it said?

What if the lack of an as it happens satellite feed to European media in London means the 3G iPhone won’t be announced at the show?

In brief we’re saying: There will be no live satellite feed going out from WWDC 2008 to European media. We speculate this could mean the keynote speech will be 100 per cent focused on developers. Makes sense, it’s a developer’s event. We want your opinion on this, drop them into the comments below.

 

Comments (10)

Anonymous Bastard | May 30, 2008 - 6:48am

Apple is releasing 3G iPhones everywhere in the world but the UK. Steve had some bad fish and chips the last time he visited, better luck next time.

 

The Postman (not verified) | May 30, 2008 - 7:13am

Apple are unlikely to let rumours and speculation run wild like this unless they have something (reasonably) worthwhile to announce. Apple's silence is often a good indicator that something's in the offing.

XamaX (not verified) | May 30, 2008 - 7:37am

The 3G iPhone is just an update, albeit a very desired one. It is not what is important for Apple.

The new handheld revolution and the Apple ecosystem is what's important for Apple.

I believe the iPhone was about to be launched a couple of weeks ago but plans have been delayed due to the huge logistics operation that liberating the device globally stands to be.

Otherwise, it is just another run-off-the-mill update just like any MacBook update or anything that have been previously released without any fanfare at all.

What stands to be really important is how the iPhone and adjacent handheld models will play in the overall scheme of things: 1000s of new apps - personal and corporate and games - that will probably work on Macs as well and how this means Apple will double its size in no time.

In fact, the international distribution announcements are much more important for Apple and the iPhone, despite the little attention is had garnered by the press, market anal.ysts and the stock market, since they mean not just iPhone deals but an awfully big Apple expansion into a worldwide company.

The iPhone is a viral marketing machine, people who would never buy a Mac are eager to buy an iPhone and will be infected by the ease of use and amicability of Mac OS X, soon drawn to other Apple products like Macs. In sum, the worldwide release of the iPhone means that Apple will start to sell Macs all around the world, in places where they hardly ever sold a screw to date. The company will thus grow much bigger because of both the contagious iPhone sales and subsequent Mac sales.

This is a new platform Apple is creating, a revolution even bigger than the 1st graphical user interface plus mouse Mac system and as soon as Microsoft realised this they had to let go of the (moronic and useless) Yahoo! deal and focus on what's important, coming out to the media with the usual vaporware announcements (one day who knows when but later rather than sooner) "we'll have a touch based" (in)"operating system" (full of bugs and targeting the sucker user as guinea pigs)...

JeffDM (not verified) | June 01, 2008 - 6:48am

I don't think the next iphone is a minor update as you seem to suggest. That's kind of like saying the MacBook is "just" an update on the iBook. It doesn't look like that it's just 3G either, but we'll have to wait to see exactly what is in it.

James in HKY (not verified) | May 30, 2008 - 7:48am

The iPhone is a viral marketing machine, people who would never buy a Mac are eager to buy an iPhone and will be infected by the ease of use and amicability of Mac OS X, soon drawn to other Apple products like Macs

This happened to me!!! I bought an iPhone loved the way it worked. 3 months later I was a proud owner of a Mac. Vista was nothing but an issue but no more issues here osx runs with out a flaw.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 30, 2008 - 9:43am

I'm not sure WWDC keynote normally get broadcast to bbc does it? special events for ipod releases etc yes, but not WWDC.

1) Developers pay lots to go to WWDC and deserve to see the keynote first.

2) The keynote will also be developer focused, so while thing will be announced it's not really aimed at the press!?

3) There's no point hype on the 3G iphone is so great at the moment if Steve Jobs even farts it's front page news!

JeffDM (not verified) | June 01, 2008 - 7:27am

Your writing is so confusing, I'm not certain what you're saying.

The press have historically been let into the WWDC keynotes. WWDC keynotes are major "bully pulpit" events that really do get a lot of attention. What the developers are really paying for are the conferences later in the day and later in the week. The keynote itself is generally very light on substance in terms of developer focus because it's more of a PR event.

Apple has often used it to announced new products and major shifts. G5 PowerMac, Mac Pro, XServe, Tiger, Leopard are all products I remember.

While they've usually done pro or developer-centric products at WWDC, I think an iPhone product update would be a very applicable announcement because they should be releasing firmware 2.0 and launching the app store. That would be the perfect time to announce a product update.

I am not saying they won't do a special event, but it would sound like a silly thing to break out to a special event only two weeks later, especially to go over some of the same things.

ryanrit (not verified) | May 30, 2008 - 2:42pm

While admittedly it's not the same as hearing it straight from Steve's mouth, we will have live video coverage before, during, and after the keynote at thedigitallifestyle.tv .

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 31, 2008 - 5:29am

Just a random note. But last time Norwegian media (source: dagbladet.no) kept away from the live satellite show to make a nudge to apples green profile. They said that it would be a lot more eco friendly to just watch it on the web instead of traveling with airplane to watch a tv screen at a set location. They wrote a letter to apple explaining that they think it was strange that a company with such a focus on a greener profile failed to make these simple steps.

Sverkel (not verified) | June 01, 2008 - 8:09am

Well I live in Denmark and I watch the Mac Rumors Live Keynote where they are writing what happens with pictures and all :)

So the EU will know what happens if they just know how to do it ;)