IPhone 5 Release Date Could Still Be The End Of June – Rumor

Despite tons of so called “evidence” there is still a hint that the next iPhone could make a June/July debut. Over the past few weeks and months, speculation has been mounting regarding the iPhone 4S/5′s release.

From production lines, to analysts, all sources have pretty much agreed on a September launch. One analyst, Andy Zaky of Seeking Alpha, believes the launch will happen at the usual time. The reasons for his logic are twofold.

Firstly – Apple has just announced its forecasts for Q3. Essentially, predicting how much money the company will be spending:

“We expect OpEx [operating expenses] to be about $2.5 billion, including about $255 million related to stock-based compensation expense.”

This is an extremely high amount. Higher than during any other quarter of the year, and it follows the same pattern as in previous years. The OpEx being high usually only points to one thing – new hardware.

What new hardware could possibly be launched in Apple’s 3rd quarter? Probably a new iPhone. (Remember, Apple’s Q3 is this time of year.) Plus, iMacs have received an upgrade recently, iPad 2 has only been out for a few months, iPods aren’t due a refresh until September. There’s really nothing else Apple could be launching, except a new iPhone.

The second – and again, logical – reason for the usual release time is that the next device is not going to be a radical new design. Apple is focussing much more on software this year, and all the leaks point to a faster iPhone 4. (Named iPhone 4S?) It would make no sense to delay the launch of a product by 3 months if it’s going to be an incremental update.

Sure, if Cupertino released a device that was radical, innovative and vastly different we could all forgive them for the delay. To say “here, have an iPhone 4 with dual-core for your patience” is downright arrogant and will not please anybody. (I still wouldn’t put it passed Apple.)

According to Zaky, this could mean that the white iPhone 4 then becomes the lower model of iPhone available, and the iPhone 5 would then be launched in black only. I’m not sure on this theory, but we at least need to consider it. What do you folks think? Is it possible that Apple will surprise us all this June and unveil the next generation iPhone? Comment below