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TomMoreno

macrumors newbie
Jun 14, 2010
3
0
I think apples goal is to switch the iPhone and iPad release dates.

iPhone over summer and during WWDC, and iPad just in time for school and early fall.

Not sure about this. They moved to the fall release schedule so they could have the run in to Christmas and all the lucrative holiday shopping with a recently refreshed product line and the iPhone is the biggest money-maker for Apple. I can't see them moving away from that holiday release schedule without a major overhaul in product release strategy.
 

iSomebody

macrumors member
Sep 19, 2012
30
0
Faster releases would mean for people no longer having the top and newest model after each release.

Personally I want to have all the time the newest iPhone, but faster releases would make it impossible.
 

Shasterball

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2007
1,178
752
I don't think they are going to early launch, but if they do, I will be seriously be pissed off...
 

Waragainstsleep

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2003
598
211
UK
Lets see if we can analyse the logic in this rumour.

Apple can't keep up with demand for the iPhone 5 so its going to certify the 5S earlier than usual in order to start production earlier than usual in Q1 2013?

This part actually makes some sense. If you don't have enough stock, you start earlier next time so you have more stock for launch day, production issues are worked out and production is ramped up.

Here are the parts that don't make sense:
First, the people who are equating the start of manufacturing with the release date. No-one is claiming a Q1 release date. The article says an early release date (meaning before October) and goes on to imply they might go back to summer like the first few iPhones.
Second, releasing the 5S earlier will negate the advantage of going into production earlier and hence the entire point of doing so. Logical fail.

Chances are the source of this rumour is just spewing fabricated link bait anyway, but if there is any truth to it, it isn't going to be a 5S in January 2013.
 

Nevzorus

macrumors 6502
Feb 29, 2012
441
0
I bought a 3rd gen iPad 3 months ago and they came out with a 4th gen. I'm going to buy the iPhone 5 next month and my chicken nuggets will ****ing pop if they come out with the iPhone 5S after 3 months again.
 

sahnjuro

macrumors regular
Jul 15, 2009
101
65
re:4G/LTE

If this is true, I imagine it'd be more a case of just expanding LTE coverage to all the networks not included in the first round.

The other way of looking at it would be that they're actually scared by Samsung's apparent dominance and they're playing catch-up?

The 5S redesign is likely to include an upgrade of the transceiver to Qualcomm WTR1605, which will allow Apple to cover more LTE bands, especially in Europe with their 2.5/2.6GHz LTE bands. Anandtech discusses this in their review of iPhone 5.

So the 5S may be primarily an LTE band update along with few tweaks here and there. This was largely the case for the iPad 3 to iPad4 update, which replaced the MDM9600 LTE modem with the MDM9615 modem. This allowed Apple to cover more LTE bands outside USA.

Assuming that iPad 5 update follows iPhone 5s update, more LTE bands will be covered for both iphone and ipad lines. Yes, Apple is playing catch up to Samsung since Samsung pretty much have different GS3 models for all the LTE bands in the world.

Expect both iphone and ipad lines to be updated within next 6 months, probably around February-March time frame. An accelerated product update cycle reflects the competitive nature of the mobile computing market, which has an unfortunate side effect of cutting down the lifetime of the technology in the market.
 

saab9573

macrumors 6502
Jul 23, 2009
374
0
so Apple cant even keep up with the demand for the iphone 5 with lots of people still waiting for their orders, and they would take resources to start buliding a 5s? yeah right in lalaland....:D
 

JS77

macrumors regular
Jun 18, 2008
231
2
This could have more to do with iOS7...

I'm sure that Forstall and his team were working on iOS7 long before iOS6 was even released. Now that Forstall is out and Ives is taking over the UI design, Apple could be looking to push out iOS7 as the last iteration under Forstall's management with a minor "spec bumped" iPhone5S...

...then, early 2014, we get the all new red-designed iPhone 6 with Ives all new iOS. :apple:

Seems plausible to me at least!
 

James Godfrey

macrumors 68020
Oct 13, 2011
2,058
1,700
I don't think there is any truth to this whatsoever, if anything there may be a possibility of an iPhone mini, with lesser specs for the younger customers. Or possibly it will come with the ability to have lte on more networks with no spec or design change.

It's too soon for apple to release a new iPhone at this time they still haven't met demand yet.
 

photographypro

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
219
77
American in Pisa (Italy)
Don't get upset!

I've owned every iPhone except for the current 5. That's only because I moved to Italy and I don't want to pay $1100 for the latest top-of-the-line (that's the price in Italy for the 64 GB iPhone 5). I was going to wait until June when I return to the United States for a month.

Anyway, I got used to buying a new iPhone every June, until the 4S. This article doesn't say the phone is coming out in January, but maybe June instead of September. That's just like the iPad 4 versus the 3. If Apple has new innovations to put into their products, why not bring them to market sooner?
No one is putting a gun to your head to buy these products! When you buy any product, you make a decision that the product is worth more than your money. You want it, now! There'll always be a better phone down the road. So you either choose to wait forever, or you buy the current top-of-the-line. :)
 

tomsamson

macrumors member
Mar 7, 2012
54
6
I wouldn't wonder about Apple creating a revision of the iPhone 5 which changes something about how the sides get their black color to avoid having those large production issues where many devices don't even make it through the production cycle without already having the color coming off.
I think it would be a good move by Apple to do such a device revision soon, both for their bottomline and any user then buying a device where the color doesn´t come off that easily.
Where i see a problem is if Apple launches this as actual new product with new product name, new internals or other big changes, attempt to hype this as new product etc and that in spring.
If they would really do that, they would loose extreme amounts of customer trust which is already shaken some thanks to releasing the iPad 4 such a short timespan after the "3".
It would be a much better idea if they just release the version where the color on sides side is changed and keep calling it iPhone 5 and then do the actual iPhone 5s with more internal chipset changes etc in the expected schedule.
Sure, at the end of the day it isn't much different whether the same thing gets sold as iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s, but it makes a huge difference in user perception whether one has the feeling they just changed the way the color is applied on the edges or Apple actually releases new versions of each device category every few months now so better think twice whether to buy the current one or wait a few months for the next iteration.
 

Apple Knowledge Navigator

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2010
3,532
11,802
I this rumour is to be believed, then it would interesting to see how they would revise the internal components. The A6 chip isn't exactly attracting cobwebs, and the camera has been squeezed to death in order to fit in the new slimmer design.
 

AppleInTheMud

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2012
427
120
Vojens Denmark
I think it would be brilliant to release something as fast as possible... Markets shares are dropping like crazy. So the stok.

Wanna see something NEW ! Not just the same 07 models in a new casing...

The iOS must be taking forward. Else theres no reason for people to buy iPhone no more. And if iOS 7 wont be a blast... Oh gee it will get low for apple
 

titusm

macrumors member
Jan 23, 2010
30
1
Hamburg, Germany
yeah, that's gonna be the mini iPhone :D
On a second thought, there are a number of reasons why Apple could release sooner:
- strong competition, especially when you consider they are more into phones now than computers these days
- introducing a range of phones: iPhone mini or iPhone photo (optical zoom phone) - Apple is already late here
- product flaws
- LTE updates
Plus: iPad5 in March, iPad mini 2 (retina) in October
 

photographypro

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
219
77
American in Pisa (Italy)
Interesting article


I honestly don't think this will hurt Apple. The iPhone is extremely profitable, if you've ever looked at the profit margins that MacRumors reports. Even though android sells more phones than Apple, Apple makes more money because their phone has a much higher profit margin. So even if the processor price goes up by 20%, Apple will still make a killing.
 

IsaacM

macrumors 6502
Jul 8, 2011
498
1,427
Meh. I'll keep my iPhone 5 for atleast 2 years. The upgrades are probably gonna be so minor that it's just not worth to upgrade every year anymore.
 

Stig McNasty

macrumors regular
Sep 18, 2007
127
35
For me (and I imagine a lot of UK users) the need to switch carrier (to EE) in order to benefit from the much vaunted 4G made the iPhone 5 far less compelling than it should be. And I really wanted the 5. If the 5S has the frequencies that the majority of UK carriers will be using for 4G then it can't come soon enough! I don't mind waiting for 4G coverage but I'm not going to spend money on a phone who's key feature I may never be able to use.

There's also the resale issue: The original iPhone 5 will never be of any use to Vodafone, O2 and their various virtual carriers' (Virgin, GiffGaff, Tesco etc) customers, so will have a lower resale value.
 

gto55

macrumors 6502a
Mar 14, 2010
650
0
Tel Aviv
I honestly don't think this will hurt Apple. The iPhone is extremely profitable, if you've ever looked at the profit margins that MacRumors reports. Even though android sells more phones than Apple, Apple makes more money because their phone has a much higher profit margin. So even if the processor price goes up by 20%, Apple will still make a killing.

However, this could explain why Apple is eager to move its producing factories to TSMC's
 

AJAAY

macrumors 6502
Sep 29, 2012
438
292
Apple can do anything they want with their own products. If they release the 5S early next year, so be it. There is nothing written in law saying they need to stick to a yearly schedule.

And the funny thing is, no matter how close together they release phones, it will still be record profits for them.
 
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