Apple is marking its 10th anniversary in retail this Thursday and there are reports of hardware being delivered and locked away, black curtains going up, training downloads for staff and all staff on duty for the 19th in Apple stores.
According to Boy Genius, staff have had their cellphones locked away, extra staff have been put on the rota for the weekend and staff have had to sign an NDA.
Apple retail stores in the US have received hardware to install for Thursday and the weekend and this equipment will be kept under lock and key for the weekend.
Apple retail staff will be putting up black curtains in all stores to hide what’s going on from members of the public.
Workers have also had to download gigabytes of data from Apple corporate labelled ‘training’ in a password protected zipped folder that can’t be accessed until Saturday.
So what have Apple planned for Thursday 17 May?
Well, no one is expecting the iPhone 5 (or the iPhone 4S as it is beginning to become known) before September based on manufacturers’ reports citing production not beginning until July for a September launch.
Reports of the iPad 3 arriving in Autumn, or of a smaller slimmer iPad, may be just figments of the rumour mill’s obsessive imagination.
What if the fabled full-screen Apple TV may be finally arriving? Many commentators have opined that this could be a logical next step for Apple based on the convergence of TV and internet media.
There has been some speculation Apple may come up with a special 10th anniversary edition of the iMac.
What if Apple goes one further and releases a whole new shape or form factor for desktop computers in the shape of a new iMac generation.
All will be revealed Thursday.
