At 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), Apple executives will take to the Town Hall stage at the company’s campus in Cupertino, Calif. to at long last “talk iPhone.” It’s been 16 months since the last iPhone was introduced, and it’s pretty clear Apple is about to take the wraps off a new device and possibly a new voice-activated personal assistant service . What will it look like? What specs will it have? What other non-iPhone things will they talk about? Follow along with us here for live, up-to-the-minute updates beginning at 10 a.m. PDT.
10:00 Hi everyone, we’re going to start in a few minutes, they just told us.
10:01 New CEO Tim Cook comes on stage to lots of applause.
10:02 My first product launch since being named CEO, he says. “I love Apple. I consider it the privilege of a lifetime to have worked here for almost 14 years and I am very excited about this new role.”
10:03 He’s talking about the history of this room, Town Hall. They launched the original iPod here. And last year they launched MacBook Air here. Today “will remind you about the uniqueness of this company.”
10:04 He’s starting with updates. Momentum in retail stores: last weekend he says they opened two new stores in China. Both have already set new records, Cook says. Largest store in Asia, had 100,000 visitors opening weekend.
(c) Om Malik, GigaOM
10:06 More talk about the glass staircases in the China and Hong Kong stores. They sold more Macs on the opening day of the Hong Kong store than they ever had, according to Cook. And now it’s time for a marketing video about the stores.
10:09 There are six stores in China now, with “lots more to come,” he promises.
10:10 Now he’s going to update us on the four different product areas. Mac is up first.
10:11 6 million copies of OS X Lion downloaded by now. 80 percent more than Snow Leopard at the same stage, he says. On the MacBook Air: “Our competitors have been trying to copy” it, but they’re finding it’s not easy, says Cook.
10:12 Approaching 60 million Mac users worldwide, Cook says. He uses NPD data to say that 23 percent of all computers sold in a store are Macs. “Still 77 percent of people who are still buying something else,” an “incredibly high ceiling, a lot to go,” he says.
10:13 Now he’s talking about iPod. 78 percent market share right now in the U.S. They’ve sold 300 million iPods worldwide.
10:15 “The MP3 market is a mature market, but the iPod is still a large and important market for Apple.”
10:16 Now onto iPhone: 93 percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying the iPhone. He’s also talking up the customer satisfaction surveys that list the iPhone as the top.
10:17 Despite this success and momentum, the iPhone has 5 percent share of the worldwide market for handsets, as in not just smartphones. “We look at the entire market because we believe all handsets will become smartphones.”
10:20 Next up: iPad. He’s talking up iPad in schools and how they’re a good fit for students and teachers, as well as commercial pilots, hospitals, etc.
10:20 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or using iPads already, he says.
10:21 “Despite everybody and their brother trying to compete with iPad, 3 out of 4 of tablets sold in U.S. are an iPa
d,” he says. The total iOS device number just passed 250 million, he adds.
10:23 Scott Forstall, head of iOS, is up on stage to talk iOS. He says 43 percent of devices are iOS.
10:23 500,000 apps on the App Store, with 140,000 are iPad specific, he said. 18 billion apps downloaded total so far, at a rate of 1 billion per month. Apple paid more than $3 billion to developers so far.
10:24 First new product, an iOS app called Cards. You can make your own cards right on your phone, and Apple will print it out and send to you.
10:25 Oh nice, they’ll send it for you too. If you mail it in the U.S. you’ll get a push notification to your phone when it arrives at the destination. $2.99 to mail in the U.S., and $4.99 internationally.
10:28 iOS 5 recap right now. He’s talking about iMessage, Reminders, integration of Twitter, Newsstand, etc.
10:35 iOS 5 coming October 12.
10:38 Eddie Cue is talking about Photostream, which pushes photos from your iPhone to your iPad, Mac, Apple TV. Also iTunes in the cloud and documents in the cloud.
10:39 He’s talking about backup in iCloud, Contacts, Mail, and more.
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