Cook to the fore
According to the usually reliable sources of ATD, the next big Apple event will take place on 4 October, and will mark the launch of the iPhone 5.
Any Apple mobile device launch is a major event - and this has been the case since the first iPhone - but this one takes on extra poignance at it will be the first since Steve jobs formally handed over the CEO reigns to Tim Cook.
While there are worse jobs than being the CEO of the biggest company in the world, it's hard to envy Cook's task of stepping into Jobs' shoes. While Jobs is rightly credited with turning Apple's fortunes around and catalysing the mobile device revolution, his greatest skill could be in product launches.
While his liberal use of hyperbole and questionable terms such as ‘magical' is grating for many, there can be no doubting that Jobs was incredibly effective at generating excitement about a new product. It wasn't just his personal charisma, but the meticulous way launches were stage-managed, including his idiosyncratic, Columbo-like, ‘one last thing' twists at the end of events.
Cook will presumably have the script for these events memorised, and we expect them to follow a similar format. But he won't make the mistake of trying to be Steve Jobs. And that's not necessary now anyway. The consistent quality of Apple products is proven and the momentum is there. It's probably sufficient to simply let the product, and its key new features, do the talking.
It's presumed that this will be the first dual-core iPhone - sporting the A5 chip you currently find in the iPad 2 - and it looks like the chassis has had another redesign. A big focus of speculation is whether the phone will have an NFC chip. This will be significant not so much for the functionality itself, but for the commercial ecosystem Apple is likely to build around it. With Google also working hard on this area, such a feature could really kick start the mobile wallet initiative.
What seems beyond question is that Apple will sell a ton of iPhone 5s. The post-Jobs era is as much about Apple protecting its preeminent position as creating disruptive technologies, and all Apple needs to do is add a couple of noteworthy new features to ensure people queue for this phone as they have for the previous four.
