There’s a report floating around this afternoon which cites Jefferies’ analyst, Peter Misek, as claiming Apple’s next iPhone could launch as early as next June-July.
While Apple did show little disregard for the people who jumped on its third-generation iPad announced back in March, (announcing the fourth iteration of the product in October), we highly doubt the company is gearing up for an iPhone launch next Summer.
Here’s why.
The more likely situation is that Apple will keep to its new Fall release window for the smartphone. Introduced with the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple has shown over the past year that its once-rigid product cycles, (specifically in reference to its iPod, iPhone and iPad) have experienced a shake-up, with it becoming increasingly difficult to predict what the company will announce next.
Of course, this choice of play by the company is largely by design. After all, being as secretive and unpredictable as possible only goes on to strengthen Apple’s marketing juggernaut that is powered by the press and mainstream media. Heck, this behaviour can sometimes also whip up rumours and speculation surrounding products which may not even exist, causing further confusion in the rumour-mill.
In our opinion, Apple has shown with the release of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 that it intends to keep its Worldwide Developer Conference, (which usually takes place in June, and would be the only considerable event in the timeframe Misek is referring to at which Apple could publicly announce its next iPhone), laser-focused on chatter relating to the announcement, detailing, and release of future software – rather than hardware.
Granted, Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference was previously the certain home to the announcement of the next iPhone. This tradition was, however, broken with the announcement of the iPhone 4S, in October 2011.
New iPhone in September, new iPad in October? … alongside new iMacs – (usually revealed in August). The previous schedule is gone under Cook. The evidence of this has been shown consistently throughout Apple’s media events over the past 12-months.
Sure, there’ll be another iPhone — but don’t expect to see it next Summer, (no matter how many “analysts” try to convince you).
But with this current release cycle, Apple is shoving all their new product launches, and sales, in the last few months of the year. It doesn’t really make for good numbers the rest of the year, just at the end.