IPhone 5 to Headline Apple's Fall Music Event?

It’s looking more and more like Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone won’t debut until the company’s 2012 fiscal year, which begins in late September. That’s the latest intelligence from Avian Securities, which says the supply chain chatter it’s been hearing suggests Apple plans to launch its newest iPhone quite a bit later than it’s launched others in the past.

“Conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone 5 will begin in September,” Avian’s analysts said in a note. “This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario.”

Certainly seems that way. As I’ve reported here before, Apple doesn’t plan to unveil a new iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which this year will be largely software-focused. And increasingly, I’m hearing speculation about the company possibly commandeering its annual September media event to launch the device instead. Which seems plausible. Buzz-wise, the iPod has been subsumed by the iPhone. And the continuing evolution of the iPod line isn’t nearly as exciting as it once was; just look over the hardware announced at last year’s fall music event: A new Shuffle that looked a lot like its second generation predecessor, a smaller multi-touch nano, a thinner iPod touch and a smaller Apple TV. Pretty staid stuff for Apple.

And we’re likely to see more of the same at this year’s event. Let’s face it, once you’ve perfected the iPod the way Apple has, there’s only so much you can do to refine it, and we’re at the point now where “thinner” and “smaller” aren’t the impressive achievements they were a few years back.

So why not spice things up by throwing the iPhone into the mix? Doing so would not only give Apple a few more months to prep the device and the services rumored to launch alongside it, it would re-energize one of the company’s most important annual events and introduce the iPhone 5 right as we head into the busy holiday shopping season.

Anonymous

I think they’ll probably launch the iPad 2 then as well.

After all, we know from the rumors that it’s delayed too! 8^)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=692271649 Luis Eduardo Gutierrez

Then again, announcing the iPhone along with iPods will in some ways distract the absolute focus that the iPhone deserves. I think it would be a bad move to mix the two.
demodave

This seems very reasonable to me. Introduce big (tablet sized) and more expensive iOS devices in spring (great for schools to plan around), then introduce small (pocket sized) iOS devices in fall for consumers – and throw the gauntlet down to all the holiday-seasonal shopping ocmpetition. Would make really good sense to me.
Anonymous

September may be iPhone 4G, but there are all kinds of things Apple can do until then to stimulate demand, which is already very strong:

• release the white iPhone 4
• add a 64GB iPhone 4 model
• combine the GSM and CDMA iPhone 4 into one universal 3G device (the Verizon iPhone already has the right chip)
• drop the 16GB iPhone 4 to $99
• drop the 3GS to $0

Even after iPhone 4G ships, you would expect the iPhone 4 to still be sold, so all of the above moves would be 2012 era.

Not to mention, some people will buy an iPhone after seeing iOS 5 features.

If you are not in a 4G area, there is no reason to wait for iPhone 4G.
Anonymous

The iPhone will still be the focus no matter what. iPods are all just low-end iPhones now. The iPod touch has FaceTime and can take and make phone calls with Skype.
http://www.facebook.com/people/L-Curtis-Boyle/671268600 L. Curtis Boyle

I don’t know if this is an “official” part of the delay… but I think one reason that it is being delayed is because of supplies from Japan, after the quake/tsunami. Apple was able to launch the iPad 2 fine because a lot of those parts would have already been shipped to China for assembly before the disaster, but even with the several month lead in for manufacturing that Apple normally does for a launch (in order to have a fair bit of product immediately available at launch), the supplies for the iphone 5 have probably not gotten out much (if at all) by the time of the tsunami. I think the delay may have to do most with the parts supply constraint in Japan, and not so much with a specific plan of changing the launch date. (However, shifting it permanently to the fall may work in their favor, as others have mentioned).

IPhone 5 to Headline Apple's Fall Music Event?

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