Although Apple has recently announced the dates of their annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, there are still no signs of a plan to unveil the iPhone 5. In the past, Apple has typically set to debut new iPhone models at their WWDC and subsequently released them in the summer to customers.
In the Senior Vice President of marketing’s announcement of the WWDC, there was no mention of the new hardware – only of the new software that they are going to release. “At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” read the company’s press release, which leaves no apparent sound of priority for the next generation iPhone.
Other reports have claimed that Apple has yet to even order parts for the iPhone 5. If Apple were going to release the new iPhone 5 in June or July, they would need to order parts six months in advance in order to assemble enough devices in time to sell to customers. If these speculations are accurate, then this will be the first time in iPhone history that the phone will not be unveiled at the WWDC.
Also if the rumors are true, it’s most likely that Apple will wait until the beginning of their fiscal year, which ends on September 24th. The release of the new iPhone 5 would therefore be in either September or October, which is very unusual for the company.
Some other rumors claim that the iPhone 5 is supposed to have an edge to edge screen, aluminum backing, and a move of the antenna from the external frame, but those are just rumors. We will simply have no clue as to what exactly will be on the iPhone 5 until the unveiling, because Apple is very secretive about new products.
Apple’s reason for waiting to release the iPhone 5 could be in consideration of their Verizon customers, for whom the iPhone 4 was only released this February. That could potentially be less than six months for those customers who just purchased the iPhone 4, if they were to release the new iPhone this summer. If they did choose to release the iPhone 5 so soon, it could be a bad move for Apple, and sales might not be as high as they’d want for the launch of a new product. But the iPhone 5 will surely be a hot commodity when Apple does finally release the new phone.