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Apple's Steve Jobs could appear onstage at Jan. 11 Verizon event

A new report claims that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs will likely make an onstage appearance next Tuesday at Verizon's media event, which is rumored to contain the long-awaited announcement of a Verizon-compatible CDMA iPhone.

After Verizon sent out invitations to members of the press for a Jan. 11 event with Verizon President Lowell McAdam, a flurry of speculation arose that the event would feature the debut of the Verizon iPhone.

John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal Digital Daily blog has added to the rumors, claiming that Apple's Jobs "will likely be a special guest."

"While the appearance isn’t 100 percent assured, sources in a position to know tell me that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Jobs will likely join McAdam onstage in New York when he announces the addition of the iPhone to its handset lineup," wrote Paczkowski, who views the event's New York location as evidence of a simple carrier announcement for "last year's iPhone."

According to Paczkowski, a new hardware announcement would instead take place in Cupertino or San Francisco.

In October, McAdam told the press that "Apple is the one that has to make" the Verizon iPhone announcement.

Rumors surrounding the Jan. 11 event were bolstered Friday by another rumor that the Verizon iPhone will go on sale on Thursday, Feb. 3. Earlier this week, AppleInsider was first to report that Apple has blocked its retail employees from taking vacation for a three-week period from the last week in January to the first two weeks in February.

Photos and video of a purported "unreleased iPhone design" surfaced earlier this week. The new design alters Apple's controversial antenna design from the iPhone 4, with two "antenna gaps" on each side and none on top. The video, which was posted to YouTube, has since been removed due to a copyright claim from Apple.

64 Comments

g3pro 24 Years · 659 comments

After years of praising the merits of AT&T's network, the FASTEST in the country, which allows simultaneous data and voice use, Apple fanboys everywhere will be confused. Do they still say that AT&T is better than Verizon or do they get sucked in by the RDF telling them that Verizon is better. Or was it RDF which sucked them into thinking AT&T was the best?

Whichever one it is, one thing will be sure: fanboys will be praising the move just like they did once Apple changed from RISC to CISC processors.

RDF is very strong. It'll be interesting to see how the fanboys here react to it.

solipsism 19 Years · 25701 comments

I don’t think that’s likely. I could see another member of Apple’s higher staff there, but not Jobs. Remember, Apple isn’t getting rid of AT&T and this isn’t some fancy new HW and OS/UI that needs to be demoed, it’s just the iPhone 4 for Verizon’s network according to most people.

PS: First Apple releases the Mac App Store on day 1 of CES and the Verizon drops the bomb on an event on day 2. Apple has stolen the focus of CES this year, which is ironic since most vendors were just playing copycat to Apple’s products.

nasserae 17 Years · 3166 comments

Maybe he will do it using FaceTime from Cupertino

J/K

But I do think SJ will show up.

robin huber 23 Years · 4052 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by g3pro

After years of praising the merits of AT&T's network, the FASTEST in the country, which allows simultaneous data and voice use, Apple fanboys everywhere will be confused. Do they still say that AT&T is better than Verizon or do they get sucked in by the RDF telling them that Verizon is better. Or was it RDF which sucked them into thinking AT&T was the best?

Whichever one it is, one thing will be sure: fanboys will be praising the move just like they did once Apple changed from RISC to CISC processors.

RDF is very strong. It'll be interesting to see how the fanboys here react to it.

About as predictably as trollboys such as you.

stelligent 15 Years · 2680 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by NasserAE

Maybe he will do it using FaceTime from Cupertino

J/K

But I do think SJ will show up.

Why? Nothing to demo. And by showing up, he effectively snubs AT&T, which has been a good partner. There is no extra ummph to gain.