Yesterday, Apple opened up registrations for 2011’s WWDC, and within ten hours had already sold out of tickets. The more interesting rumor from yesterday, though, was that Apple would refrain from unveiling the iPhone 5 at this year’s WWDC, instead focusing entirely on software. That would mean that instead of the iPhone 5 shipping in June, as it has historically done, the iPhone 5’s launch would be pushed back until later in the year.
After the initial shock, the rumor sounds extremely likely. The report came from Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop, whose sources are solid. Moreover, the early year launch of the Verizon iPhone and Apple’s continued delay in shipping the white iPhone 4 (while repeatedly promising it’s still coming) all imply that Apple’s not planning the iPhone 5 in June, but will push it until later in the year, to debut before the holiday shopping season.
Over at Slashgear, Chris Davies brings up one interesting point: a late 2011 debut might give Apple more flexibility in making the iPhone 5 4G compatible. Qualcomm’s next LTE chipsets are due out at that point, and will allegedly boast improved power efficiency… the very issue that led Apple to leave LTE support out of the Verizon iPhone earlier this year.
If Apple does delay the iPhone 5 until later in the year, it’s all the more likely we’ll see a sizable update boasting 4G capability. For Verizon users, that means LTE; unfortunately, on AT&T, their HSPA+ “4G” smartphones are actually throttled to be slower than their regular 3G phones. If the iPhone does go 4G later this year, the Verizon iPhone 5 is going to be the clear winner: AT&T’s 4G network is a disgrace, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get substantially better anytime soon.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
18 responses to “Apple Could Ship 4G iPhones By The End Of The Year”
Apple may well delay the iPhone 5 to the second half of the year, but they are still going to want to get it out by mid-October at the latest I would think, because they are going to want it to be in the shops in substantial numbers by Christmas. Even if second generation LTE chipsets with lower power requirements are available then, they are going to be new silicon with all the potential ramping up of production issues that go with that. (Apple shifts its entire production to new silicon at once, whereas many other manufacturers start with a few high end models bought by a small minority of their customers). So I would think it will still be too touch and go for Apple to get an LTE iPhone out in time to reach the mass market by Christmas, and I doubt we will see it this year. It is a shift from “impossible” for a June release to “unlikely” for a September or October release, just the same. My money is on an iPhone 5 in September with faster CPU and GPU, more RAM, possibly an aluminium rather than glass back, better cameras. It will be what the 3GS was to the 3G: an improved version of the same phone. Then Apple can get the more dramatically improved 4G version out in the middle of next year. This gives the operators more time to build their 4G networks before having iPhones unleashed on them.
By 4G, I mean LTE, of course. The iPhone 5 having HSPA+ strikes me as quite possible.
This article was fine until the end when the author was biased towards Verizon. Not good, not good.
We know nothing about what Apple has planned, yet the Verizon iPhone 5 wins the cake? That’s hilariously ignorant.
I call BS on that photo. You can jailbreak your phone and download an called FakeCarrier and change the carrier’s name in the corner. I did the exact same thing to freak out some Android nerds. ;P
It is ‘biased’ towards Verizon because they are pushing strides in their LTE coverage way harder than ATT.
As for the rest of it. It has been made rather clear that there will be no hardware talk at WWDC. But that doesn’t mean no phone in the summer. After all, they can whip up a media event real fast there at Cupe. Do it a week or two later. Perhaps merely a few days before the iphone is released. The lines will be there.
Given that phones are a contract issue, I would be really shocked if the iphone really was that big of a holiday gift compared to a computer, ipad etc. So Apple may not be concerned with the season at all.
In fact I wouldn’t be shocked if there was no hardware update this year and in Jan/Feb we see the iphone getting a new slot in the release calendar with ipads being pushed to late spring.
Given the lack of anywhere really go to with the iphone hardware until LTE etc is ready to really rumble and the ipad supply issues (which could be solved in part by not reducing lines to make iphone 5s) it isn’t out of the realm of possiblity or plausibility
OR he could’ve replaced the 3G logo from the Verizon carrier bundle with “LTE”.
I believe the iPhone on the picture is jailbroken.. what happened to the time? Why does it say, “T…(unrecognizable)..”? And also, there are 3 more page on the home screen (the dots) indicating that person could have put the jailbreak apps (Cydia, etc) on the other 3 pages. But the article says nothing about the picture.. I think they just found that image from Google or something and put it here… reasonable as it is related to the story, though I would like more accurate photos.
This entire article is all speculation based upon the writers own guesses. This smacks of FUD. Apple specifically said not hardware announcements in June, just software development and learning for developers. Sold out in half a day. But the “I have to be first to announce” crowd just seems to splash a lot of guess and by golly out as fact, and then everyone goes wow that’s neat.
Pure BS.
This entire article is all speculation based upon the writers own guesses. Apple specifically said no hardware announcements in June, just software development and learning for developers. Sold out in half a day. But the “I have to be first to announce” crowd just seems to want to splash a lot of guess and by golly out as fact, and then everyone goes wow that’s neat … no, no …This smacks of FUD.
Pure BS.