Live from Apple's "Mum is no longer the word" event in London
9:17AM BST - We're, ahem, queuing alongside a few dozen other journos outside the Apple Store Regent, iPod touch ads in the window and all. And guess who just turned up... The iPhone guy! You know, the iPhone project manager dude who gave all the online tutorials.
Context & Ripple Effects
Two weeks after Steve Jobs ran the "beat goes on" special event in Cupertino on September 5, Apple has crossed the Atlantic: the "Mum is no longer the word" press event is underway at the Apple Store Regent in London, with Engadget liveblogging from the queue alongside a few dozen journalists. The iPod touch ads already in the store window signal what the morning's reveal centers on — carrying the September 5 hardware slate into the UK market.
First-order effects
- UK press and retailers get their first local word on iPod touch availability and pricing, converting Apple's Cupertino-stage announcements into a shippable British retail proposition.
Second-order effects
- UK consumer-electronics rivals and carriers now face the iPod touch and iPhone lineup as named, priced competitors in their home market rather than import curiosities, forcing them to respond on local terms.
Third-order effects
- The two-week Cupertino-to-London sequence points toward Apple treating major hardware launches as coordinated multi-region campaigns, with regional keynotes as a standard stage in the rollout rather than exceptions.
The trend: Apple's product launches are evolving from single-country keynotes into sequenced global rollouts, with each regional event extending the same announcement's commercial reach.