MACNATICO

The Stage Is (Being) Set

John Gruber:

I’m thinking it makes more sense for Apple to hold two events. First, an iPhone event, focused solely on the new iPhone and iOS 6. Then, the iPhone ships nine days later, and there’s another wave of iPhone-focused attention as the reviews come out. Then, in the first or second week of October, Apple holds its traditional “music event”, exactly along the lines of the events at which they’ve been debuting new iPods for the last decade.

This goes against the notion floating around the past few weeks that Apple would announce both the iPhone and any new iPads/iPods at the still-unannounced September 12 event.

What Gruber is saying makes a lot of sense. The iPhone is the main event, literally and figuratively. Anything else Apple shows off during an iPhone event will be secondary. There’s enough demand for the iPad Mini (Nano, Air, whatever), that it would get headlines, but it would still be all about about the new iPhone. And why battle it out with yourself for one set of headlines when you can get two, spread out? Apple could essentially own the tech press for two months in a row.

But Apple has always been about releasing things when they’re done. So if the smaller iPad is done, maybe they do make it a part of the September 12 event. But again, the talk the past few weeks has been that the smaller iPad would likely launch later in the fall, after the iPhone. So again, another event would seem to make sense.

Most interesting to me: I’ve also been hearing whispers recently of something related to all of this. Not enough info to go with just yet, but something that also may point to a second event. Stay tuned.