Thanks to public flight data we know that on Thursday, a private jet that had departed from Des Moines International Airport landed at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport two hours later. This plane was one chartered by a company that provides business professionals such as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook with access to private jets.
Although there was no way to confirm that Tim Cook was aboard this flight, the private jet’s trajectory from San Jose to Cincinnati to Des Moines lines up perfectly with Cook’s visits to these cities over the course of 24 hours.
There are many reasons why Cook could be in Austin. Perhaps he is paying a visit to Apple’s seven-building campus or the Flexitronics factory that assembles the Mac Pro or maybe it’s something much bigger.
The team over at MacRumors claim that they received an anonymous tip from a reader that claims Cook is to make a big announcement about the September event at an undisclosed location in Austin on Friday. Although no sources are yet to confirm this information, we know that Apple typically announces its September event in late August, sending invites via email to members of the media.
Apple may have selected Austin because of its growing presences of AR/VR startups so it may be that Cook’s announcement is about the ARKit but again, this is just a rumor. At a town hall meeting, Austin Mayor Steve Adler did state that Cook would be announcing a training program to be launched across the U.S. but its likely that Cook has more on his schedule in the next few hours.
The company has hosted special events in September for the past consecutive 5 years, dating back to the introduction of the iPhone 5 in 2012. If they continue to follow the same pattern, this year’s event is rumored to take place on either September 6 or September 12.
