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Two New iPhone Models, iPhone 5 Design Seeing Production Delays?

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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9to5Mac claims that there are indeed two new iPhone models: the "low-end" iPhone 4-look alike that we've seen parts for already, and the teardrop shaped iPhone 5 (artist rendition below).




N94 (left), and iPhone 5 artist rendition (right)​
But they also claim that this new iPhone 5 design is seeing design and production delays and there may be shortages into 2012:
It appears that the tear-drop shaped iPhone 5 with larger screen and thinner, rounder body is seeing continued design and production delays, at least on one assembly line (Apple has multiple production sources - Pegatron, Foxconn, etc). We therefore think that iPhone 5 will be delayed slightly at the very least and may see shortages all the way into 2012.
Click to expand...
Apple has been known to pre-announce products that won't be available for some period of time. Most recently, Apple's Thunderbolt Display was announced to be delivered "within 60 days". With the iPhone, Apple will certainly try to minimize that delay in order to avoid suppressing sales during the holiday quarter.

Apple's annual iPhone announcement is already much later in the year than usual. In the past 4 years, Apple has launched a new iPhone in the summer, while this year's launch has still not been officially confirmed.

Meanwhile, MacRumors has also heard through a supplier that the case manufacturers are very confident that the leaked case designs are representative of the iPhone 5. There's been some speculation about how certain the case manufacturers need to be to start mass producing these early case designs. At least according to one of our contacts, they seem very certain.

Article Link: Two New iPhone Models, iPhone 5 Design Seeing Production Delays?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/16/two-new-iphone-models-iphone-5-design-seeing-production-delays/
Y

Yumunum

macrumors 65816
Apr 24, 2011
1,452
0
U.S.
How much waiting are we supposed to endure? :p I may not even buy the freakin' thing. But I won't know until it's features are announced!
 
Northgrove

Northgrove

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2010
1,149
437
It doesn't say anywhere we'll have to wait longer for the release, but only that there may be shortages. Which I think would be likely for the rest of 2011 anyway. :p

Also, nothing is being postponed as far as I can tell. No unexpected waits. The rumor about October still seems to hold true. It's not October yet, despite the many news posts on this topic. *shrug*
 
K

kiwiboi87

macrumors 6502
Aug 30, 2011
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

I would wait for the teardrop
 
OTACORB

OTACORB

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2009
1,543
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This always happens and honestly I think sometimes this stuff is Apple driven. They want everyone to be in a frenzy to try to get one, so they must have everyone think they will be in such short supply that folks will start camping out a week ahead.
 
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YeahBuddy

macrumors regular
Aug 31, 2011
173
5
Boston, MA
I refuse to buy another phone from the company who created my Omnia II. What a piece of crap, haha. I'm going to be very patient and very happy when I finally buy myself either of the upcoming models. ;)
 
C

commander.data

macrumors 65816
Nov 10, 2006
1,058
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It seems rumours of the iPhone 5 are in a perpetual on again off again loop.

In any case, with continued delays and supply constraints into 2012, Apple should have just went ahead with an incremental iPhone 4GS refresh in at the regular June launch cycle earlier this year and just have saved the redesigned iPhone 5 until next year and launch in volume a little early, say in April or May. The effective result in terms of availability looks to be pretty similar only there would be less confusion for customers and less stress for Apple engineers.
 
bpeeps

bpeeps

Suspended
May 6, 2011
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If people stopped reading rumor stories, the time would past like that. But hey let's face it, who can do that?

I don't know about you, but we've waited this long, another month won't kill me.
 
K

kappaknight

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2009
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Atlanta, GA
commander.data said:
It seems rumours of the iPhone 5 are in a perpetual on again off again loop.

In any case, with continued delays and supply constraints into 2012, Apple should have just went ahead with an incremental iPhone 4GS refresh in at the regular June launch cycle earlier this year and just have saved the redesigned iPhone 5 until next year and launch in volume a little early, say in April or May. The effective result in terms of availability looks to be pretty similar only there would be less confusion for customers and less stress for Apple engineers.
Click to expand...

There is no on-again, off-again here. It's definitely on. Besides, you're forgetting the reason why there's even a delay to begin with in 2011. The Verizon iPhone was just launched a couple of months before the annual refresh, then the white iPhone 4.

Also, sales are guaranteed to double since we are near the holiday shopping season. I'm pretty sure it's Apple desire to refresh around this period whether they are replacing the iPod with iPhones or not.
 
Mattsasa

Mattsasa

macrumors 68020
Apr 12, 2010
2,339
744
Minnesota
No! No! No! No! This cannot be happening!!!!!! My obsession over this phone is not healthy! Apple for the sake of my sanity and many others, announce it please!!! I beg of you!!! Stop doing this to us!
 
AppleScruff1

AppleScruff1

macrumors G4
Feb 10, 2011
10,026
2,949
OTACORB said:
This always happens and honestly I think sometimes this stuff is Apple driven. They want everyone to be in a frenzy to try to get one, so they must have everyone think they will be in such short supply that folks will start camping out a week ahead.
Click to expand...

Of course it's Apple driven. They want to create the feeding frenzy so the media will pick up on it. They get a load of free advertising and create desire for the product by keeping it in short supply. All planned, they do it every time and the public buys it hook, line and sinker. Marketing at it's finest. And I have no doubt the iPhone 5 will be a great product.
 
Bartboy919

Bartboy919

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2005
66
0
bpeeps said:
If people stopped reading rumor stories, the time would past like that. But hey let's face it, who can do that?

I don't know about you, but we've waited this long, another month won't kill me.
Click to expand...

I did read any rumors until there was no announcement at WWDC. This is taking forever.
 
maerz001

maerz001

macrumors 68020
Nov 2, 2010
2,405
2,297
so...

sounds to me iPhone 4S =5 in 2011 and the rumored thinner with bigger screen = 6 in 2012. and than we have the usual 1 year product cycle as before...
 
Y

YeahBuddy

macrumors regular
Aug 31, 2011
173
5
Boston, MA
Peace said:
Apple isn't doing this to you. Rumor sites are.
Click to expand...

Very true. I didn't start using this site until early this year with the iPad 2 launch.

I remember last June I went onto my computer and bam there was a new iPhone 4 on the homepage. I knew nothing about it and enjoyed checking all the new stuff out. I was stupid to start following iPhone 5 rumors back in January lol
 
Last edited:
Peace

Peace

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Apr 1, 2005
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YeahBuddy said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)



Very true. I didn't start using this site until early this year with the iPad 2 launch.

I remember last June I went onto my computer and bam there was a new iPhone 4 on the homepage. I knew nothing about it and enjoyed checking all the new stuff out. I was stupid to start following iPhone 5 rumors back in January lol
Click to expand...

Just to be clear I wasn't talking about MR specifically.
 
C

commander.data

macrumors 65816
Nov 10, 2006
1,058
187
kappaknight said:
There is no on-again, off-again here. It's definitely on.
Click to expand...
It wasn't as much on again off again as a constant maybe. It seemed like every iPhone 4GS article mentioned the possibility of a redesigned iPhone 5 but noted no further evidence has been seen. iPhone 5 posts mention the latest rumour, but then link things back to the lack of more substantive evidence compared to the constant stream of iPhone 4GS parts.

kappaknight said:
Besides, you're forgetting the reason why there's even a delay to begin with in 2011. The Verizon iPhone was just launched a couple of months before the annual refresh, then the white iPhone 4.
Click to expand...
It's unclear what was the chicken and what was the egg. This years launches are no doubt planned a year before. If they decided last year that this year's iPhone refresh would be pushed back in the fall, then they would decide to go ahead with the Verizon iPhone 4 and white iPhone launches in the spring. On the other hand, if they had already decided late last year and were lining up suppliers for an iPhone 4GS launch in June, they may have decided not to launch the Verizon iPhone 4 and white iPhone. Or even with a June iPhone 4GS, they could have still launched the Verizon iPhone 4 and white iPhone 4 when they did, because they would still be needed as the low-end model for another year.
 
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