Apple has sent out a special media invitation for an event at its corporate headquarters March 17 that will preview upcoming software for its popular iPhone. Some Apple Web sites report that the event is slated to preview the new 3.0 version of the iPhone operation system and a look at the iPhone software development kit.
Apple is inviting a group of select journalists to
a March 17 event to preview the 3.0 version of the iPhone operating system, and
the company plans to offer a sneak peek at the new iPhone software development
kit.
On March 12, Apple began sending out select invitations
to the event, which is being held at the company's main headquarters in Cupertino,
Calif.
Some Web sites, such as Ars Technica,
published the Apple invitations.
In addition,
Reuters
reported that Apple would hold the event
in order to preview new iPhone
software. Later, an Apple spokeswoman did confirm to eWEEK that Apple
would hold the event on March 17, but the actual invitation did not
provide any additional details.
Although specifics were scarce, Web sites reported
that Apple does plan to preview the new 3.0 version of the iPhone operating
system. In addition, Apple executives will detail the updated version of the
software development kit - SDK - for the iPhone.
The March 17 event is gearing up to be similar to
Apple's 2008 event for the release of the 2.0 version of the iPhone OS. During
that event,
Apple
detailed how it planned to open up the software kit to more developers and
offer enterprise support for features such as Microsoft Exchange through
licensing the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol.
The Web site
Apple
Insider has its own "wish list" for what the new iPhone OS should contain.
In a recent Gartner report,
Apple's
share of the smartphone operating system market grew 111 percent from the
fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. While iPhone operating
systems shipments are still far behind those of Symbian and BlackBerry maker Research
in Motion, it does show the growing popularity of the Apple iPhone.
eWEEK's Apple Watch has a full breakdown of the
latest smartphone operating systems numbers
here.
In addition, the Apple App Store has stirred enough
industry envy that
Microsoft
and Nokia are now planning to open their own smartphone application Web sites,
where users can download apps. The popularity of the Apple App store is another
reason why the iPhone continues to grow in popularity.
While
CEO Steve Jobs has been sidelined by health problems, Apple has continued
to make a series of impressive announcements in his absence during the last two
months to shore up its image as one of the world's most innovative tech companies.
Earlier this week,
Apple
released a new talking iPod Shuffle with 4GB of memory. In addition, at 1.8-inches
tall and less than an inch thin,
Apple
also claimed this iPod is now the smallest of music players available in the
market.
On March 3,
Apple
also rolled out new versions of its Mac Pro desktop, iMac and Mac mini. The
release of the new Mac Pro included support for
Intel's new line of processors
based on the Nehalem microarchitecture.
As usual, Apple has also stirred up the rumor
mill after it has been reported that the company is beginning to order
touch-screen displays from the same Taiwanese manufacturer that makes the
displays for the iPhone.
That
has led to speculation that Apple is getting ready to enter the so-called "netbook"
market with its version of these mininotebooks.
While the March 17 event did talk about software,
Apple has not officially announced a specific date for when it plans to update
the iPhone's hardware.
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