As covered in the Apple Q2 2009 conference call, Apple Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, repeated the company line that they “looked forward to [Steve Jobs'] return at the end of June”.

Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) — where in 2008 Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 3G to the world — takes place this year June 8-12, which is decidedly before the end of June, and thus the end of Jobs’ leave of absence.

Does that make it impossible for Steve Jobs to pull out a surprise appearance, iPhone the Third Generation in pocket? No… but it makes it unlikely.

That leaves Apple marketing honcho Phil Schiller, who handled Macworld 2009, or iPhone marketing head Greg “Joz” Joswiak, who handled part of the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Peek as the likely suspects, doesn’t it? (Perhaps with Scott Forstall again on the 3.0 software?)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Returning “End of June” Makes WWDC 2009 Jobsnote Unlikely?

Apple’s VP of iPhone and iPod Marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiack, chatted with the UK’s Edge Online about all things iPhone (and iPod touch!) gaming, and he once again shows us the power of perspective. While some might find the iPhone SDK limiting in terms of Apple’s tight control and opaque approval process, Joz argues that, in some ways, its far more open than gaming handsets:

some of the game guys have told us that they love the experience here because, on a product like a DS or a PSP they’re very limited in what they can do, because they have to get the permission of a Sony or a Nintendo who might say, “No, we don’t want another example of that game,” or maybe because they’re creating such a game themselves, so it’s a lot more tightly controlled. Here, if they’ve got a great idea for a great game, they can just go for it, and that’s actually worked very much to our favour.

Joz shares his thoughts on the design of the iPhone, the SDK, App Store pricing, and many other issues as well. Given that the App Store has just passed 15,000 applications and half-a-billion downloads, with games no doubt accounting for a high percentage of those, the entire article is definitely a worthwhile read.

Check it out, and let us know whether you agree or disagree with Joz’s point of view…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Joz on Gaming: Head of iPhone Marketing on the App Store, SDK, and More

Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple’s head of iPod and iPhone marketing shed some light on the iPhone 3G/2.0 and some of its highly requested, yet still missing functionality, like where’s our ability to select text, cut it or copy it, and paste it?

Apple has a priority list of features, and they got as far as they could down that list with this model

Why isn’t there a constant yet ever-so-slightly-disappointed voice telling us we missed our last ten exists and threatening to “re-calculate”?

[T]here are some murky “complicated issues” preventing driving directions apps at the moment. “It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us.”

Like TomTom?

With regards to David Pogue’s claim that Apple said the iPhone 3G GPS antenna was too small for turn-by-turn?

Find his answer after the jump!

That’s wrong; the iPhone’s GPS is just like the GPS in other phones, many of which do provide driving directions

We can view Microsoft Office and Apple iWork docs in iPhone 2.0, why can’t we edit or create them?

[T]here might be issues with applications each having their own file space. “There’s no cross-application file structure.”

TiPB is still waiting on DocsToGo as well. What about unspecified technical issues?

[D]idn’t know of any such hold-ups.

Does that mean there aren’t any, there are but they remain unknown, or that the ones he knows off are all very specified?

Time, and future 2.x firmware updated will hopefully tell.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Joz Speaks! iPhone 3G Cut-and-Paste, Turn-by-Turn, and Office Suites?