The iPhone 5S, Fifth-Gen iPad Could Debut Next Summer, 2013 [Rumor]

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Right now, if Apple sticks with a yearly product release cycle, all of Cupertino’s major products are scheduled to debut next year in October. The iPhone 5S. The iPad mini 2. The iPad 5. New iPod Touch. New iMacs. New MacBooks. All released right before Christmas.

It’s hard to believe that Apple would actually release all of their new products in October next year, though. It not only makes for a boring road map, but it positions all of Apple’s new products during the most expensive holiday of the year: if people want to get, say, a new iPhone and an iPad next year, they might have to choose one or the other, instead of getting both at launch during a more staggered road map.

That’s why there’s something about the latest Digitimes report that makes sense to me: they say the iPhone 5S and next-gen iPad will come out in the middle of next year, or around June or July.

The always questionable, often unreliable Digitimes reports:

Apple is expected to introduce its next-generation iPad and iPhone series around the middle of 2013, which will boost demand for ICs in particular communications related chips during the latter half of the first quarter, according to the observers. Component orders placed by Apple, which climbed to high levels prior to the iPhone 5 rollout, will rise again between March and April, the observers indicated.

We have to take this with a grain of salt, but I think Apple has to shift some products earlier in the year in 2013. The iPhone 5S is a good candidate: after all, Apple released new iPhones during the summer up until the iPhone 4S, and a summer launch guarantees that supply issues have been resolved by the time the Christmas season approaches.

Likewise, it makes sense that the iPad 5 might come out in June next year. Apple released the fourth-gen iPad just seven months after the third-generation, after all, and the fact that Apple has switched over to calling each successive iPad “the new iPad” suggests to me a more Mac-like approach to product updating in the future.

What do you think?

Source: Digitimes

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