Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference is right around the corner and there’s a lot of anticipation as to what will be revealed. A new iPhone, with a front facing camera, with a new design and processor seems destined, but some are wondering if a new response to AT&T’s new data plan is in the mix as well.
“As Macworld’s Dan Frakes points out, AT&T has pulled a’switcheroo’ on iPad buyers who, drawn by the promise of unlimited data, were willing to pay an extra $130 for the 3G model,” writes Jeff Bertolucci. “Should Apple make amends? There is some precedent here. When Apple lowered the cost of the original iPhone by $200 about two months after its June 2007 debut, it offered a $100 store credit to early buyers who’d paid the introductory price. Even if AT&T is to blame for the data-plan mess, Apple would earn brownie points by tossing 3G iPad buyers a bone.”
There could be an additional surprise for iPhone OS 4.0 as well, like perhaps a version of iChat for the mobile phone. WWDC would also be a great opportunity for a more formal response from Apple about the unfortunate Foxconn suicides.
“The company that manufactures a lot of Apple hardware, as well as devices for other tech giants including Dell and HP, has been hit by a wave of suicides at its factories in China. While Foxconn’s suicide rate may not exceed China’s national average (and in fact may be below it), the grim news furthers the perception that those shiny iPhones, iPods, and iPads loved by Westerns are produced in sweatshops by exploited, underpaid workers,” notes Bertolucci. “Apple has publicly announced that it’s ‘saddened’ by the Foxconn deaths, but the WWDC would be a good opportunity for Jobs to announce more aggressive steps by Apple–and, to be fair, by the rest of the tech industry–to address the ongoing criticism of workplace conditions in Asian factories.”
“Then there’s the matter of Lala. Apple has shuttered the online Lala music service that it bought last year,” says Bertolucci. “There’s speculation the company will turn Lala in a Web-based iTunes storefront, but Apple, in characteristic tight-lipped fashion, isn’t talking. Why not spill the beans at WWDC?”
Source: PC World
