Over at The Loop, Jim Dalrymple is contradicting today’s reports that both the iPhone 5 and iPad 2 might be delayed by three months each, saying that both products are “on schedule” according to his own sources.
Of course, what “on schedule” means depends on where you’re sitting. They still might ship three months later than expected.
As Dalrymple notes:
From what I’ve heard this morning both products are on schedule and will ship when they are supposed to. Only Apple knows exactly when that will be, but the products are not delayed.
It seems amazing that rumors of Apple missing product deadlines are running rampant when Apple hasn’t even announced the product yet. The only deadlines that have been set are by the media, not Apple.
So the iPhone 5 and iPad 2 might still ship three months later than the history of the iOS yearly upgrade cycle implies… but since they’re unannounced, that doesn’t mean they’ve been “delayed.” They can’t be delayed until they are announced.
Dalrymple’s right, of course, but surely, this is just semantic quibbling. Apple itself has set the expectation of yearly iOS device upgrades: the iPhone is always updated in June just as the iPod Touch is always updated in September. If the iPhone 5 isn’t released in June, sure, that’s not technically a delay… but for millions upon millions of users, it’s effectively one.
