June 29, 2002

11:32 PM

The Apple rumor mill is buzzing...Tonight marks the expiration for many of their recent promos and rebates. The Apple Store has been closed for a few hours now for "updating." Is a new "insanely great" product about to be unleashed unto the Mac faithful ... or is it just wishful thinking?
posted by Fofer (14 comments total)

Oh, please, please, please have the new product be the G5. It's been a long time, and we've been very patient.
posted by Down10 at 11:55 PM on June 29, 2002

Consensus among the rumormongers seems to be that we won't see a G5 till next year, but that we will get zippier G4's come Macworld NY in 2 weeks.

I doubt this is a sign of any major announcements. I just don't think they'd announce anything big so soon before MWNY.
posted by toddshot at 12:44 AM on June 30, 2002

No way. First of all, nobody releases a new product on a Sunday (Yahweh notwithstanding). Secondly, the MWNY keynote is 17 days away. Even if there were some strategic reason that the product should go out right now, Jobs loves the big-splash keynote product intros too much not to hold off for a couple of weeks.
posted by jjg at 1:05 AM on June 30, 2002

Maybe Jobs just can't wait?
posted by Monk at 1:14 AM on June 30, 2002

I would think they'd wait until MacWorld as well.

But speaking about waiting -- couldn't we have just waited until the apple store was back up? It's not as if they'd have it down for an entire day -- I hope. Maybe it is just routine maintenance. It would be great if something exciting were coming down the pike, but it could just be nothing.
posted by meep at 1:54 AM on June 30, 2002

I think the June 30 expiry date has more to do with the fact that it's the end of Apple's fiscal quarter. Sales have been lower than expected this quarter -- Apple has already warned, and their stock price has taken a hit as a result -- and these offers are more likely an attempt to boost flat sales for that reason, rather than the imminent release of new gear.

Seriously, ever since I switched last November, I've been noticing that hardcore Mac heads go absolutely meshuggeh just before a Macworld. It goes something like this. "I desperately hope it will be $something_unreasonable, but if it's $something_realistic, does not use $unavailable_technology and costs $a_price_apple_is_likely_to_charge, I will be bitterly disappointed, and feel that Steve has personally betrayed me." It's a bit much.

Other points. The Apple Store is back up. Photoshop 7.0 was announced on a Sunday.
posted by mcwetboy at 4:55 AM on June 30, 2002

More likely, new promos, given their current sales and inventory woes.
posted by fletcher at 4:57 AM on June 30, 2002

Waiting for the Ipod/pda based on unix.
posted by mecran01 at 5:22 AM on June 30, 2002

i condsider myself a shockingly realistic mac user. the only thing i really want apple to deliver to me by macworld is an OS which, as has been promised, makes my rendering times (i'm an artist) cheaper and faster. my bottom line relies upon it.
posted by patricking at 5:46 AM on June 30, 2002

When Amazon marked the 700mhz 14" iBook "unavailable" my rumor senses went off. The smaller screen versions are still available. So does this mean a new iBook? I'm betting that it will either be dropped (hope not, I was saving for a 14" model) or updated with a G4.
posted by mkelley at 8:21 AM on June 30, 2002

Please, leave the hyping to Steve Jobs. He does a much better job.
posted by ncurley at 2:47 PM on June 30, 2002

Holy crap- the Apple Store is back up! What secret messages have they encoded onto the page?????????
posted by dogwelder at 5:26 PM on June 30, 2002

Maybe Jobs just can't wait?

Monk,

That link was classic!
posted by aaronchristy at 7:41 PM on June 30, 2002

I'm just wondering, because of the "something people haven't seen before" link policy of MeFi, is there any time the Apple rumor mills aren't buzzing?
posted by anildash at 10:55 PM on June 30, 2002