All Things Digital

Try as they might, financial analysts attending Apple’s (AAPL) Q2 earnings call yesterday were unable to goad company execs into giving up a launch date for the 3G iPhone. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, and Tim Cook, the company’s COO, refused to confirm rumors that the company plans to announce the device this summer, though they did–as they always do–claim Apple has a number of exciting products in the pipeline.

And that was confirmation enough for analysts. Citigroup’s (C) Richard Gardner promptly issued a research note pitching June 9, the kickoff of the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, as the likely date of the 3G iPhones’ debut. Wrote Gardner, “We expect a steady stream of new products beginning on 9 June with a 3G iPhone and iPhone/iPod touch SDK, continuing with a refresh of the complete laptop line in July/August and concluding with a complete refresh of the iPod line in August/September.”

June 9 seems a plausible, if not bleedingly obvious launch date. Announce the 3G iPhone at WWDC, with an eye toward an official release on June 29, the first anniversary of its predecessor’s debut? That gives Apple plenty of time to reach its goal of shipping 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. The company has so far sold 1.7 million iPhones worldwide, leaving 8.3 million more to go if it wants to hit the 10 million mark. Uncrating the 3G version of the device in early summer, perhaps in concert with a move into the massive Japanese and Chinese markets, would make reaching 10 million iPhones shipped an easy matter.

We will enter Asia with the iPhone in 2008. … We will one day enter China, we’re not saying when, and we will one day enter India.”

–Apple COO Tim Cook

Here’s another brief but interesting bit of news to emerge from Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday. When CEO Steve Jobs pledged the company would sell 10 million iPhones in 2008 did he mean 10 million phones within this calendar year, or 10 million phones between June 29, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2008? Well, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, it’s the former. “We confirmed with Apple that the goal is to sell 10m iPhones ‘in CY08′ alone,” Munster wrote in a note to clients, adding that the company will have no trouble hitting that target–especially once it launches the iPhone in Asia, as COO Tim Cook promised.

“We are currently modeling for 12.9m iPhones in CY08,” Munster said. “Exceeding the goal by 2.9m units or 29%. … Jobs’s reiteration of the 10 million iPhones and the iPhone in Asia by the end of the year eases some investor concerns.”

With the Apple TV Take Two, we think we have it right this time. I think we have a great product.”

–Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, Jan. 23

Promises, promises, promises … When Apple (AAPL) debuted iTunes Movie Rentals this past January, the company pledged to offer “over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high-definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound.” Well, today’s March 4 and, as best I can tell, Apple hasn’t kept its promise. Browse iTunes this morning with the software’s “Power Search,” and you’ll find just 411 films for rent–91 of them available in high definition. That’s 589 short of the promised 1,000–a discrepancy of nearly 60%.

Seems Apple may not have Apple TV quite right yet after all–the Hollywood licensing part of it, anyway.

UPDATE: At the Apple shareholder meeting yesterday, CEO Steve Jobs confirmed the discrepancy, saying the company’s goal of 1,000 rental titles on iTunes was short by around 600.