John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

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.

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December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

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December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

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December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

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December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus