Tired of all the will-they, won’t-they iPhone 5 stories? Or are you secretly kind of jubilant each time they pronounce the iPhone-next’s arrival “later than expected”? I’m talking about those of you who picked up a Verizon iPhone 4 in February (okay, me) assuming it’d be obsolete a few months later.
Avian Securities just moved the ball back up-field by as much as half a year, claiming the iPhone 5 won’t go into production until late summer or early fall. Assuming routine lag times as Apple ramps up to a formal product launch, that could put the iPhone out as far as holiday 2011, or even push it over the edge and into 2012.
Avian’s sources? A “key component supplier,” who “indicates that production for the iPhone-5 will begin in September.”
Avian says the supplier’s position jibes with its own conversations around the supply chain, that the “consensus view” is lining up behind September as production-ground-zero, and thus that “any launch is likely a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event.”
You’ve heard about the so-called entry-level iPhone (cheaper, with some feature nipping and tucking)? Avian manages to sneak something in about that, too, claiming it exists (stop the presses!) and citing “contacts” who’ve seen “the placeholder in Apple’s roadmap.” No word on specs or timeframes, of course.
In the meantime, enjoy your new iPhones, fellow 4-ites. Taking a victory lap when stories like this drop off the tree may sound selfish, but my inner gadget-freak’s on the hook to buy whatever’s next, now or later. At this point, my wallet/bank/money-pot (read: significant other) votes for later.
(via BusinessInsider)