Last year, Apple threw us all for a loop. Every year since 2007, the Cupertino company had updated the iPhone in June. We all spent summer 2011 eagerly refreshing our inboxes, waiting for an event invite that didn’t come until October. Now, we don’t know what to expect this year, but rumour emanating from the supply chain says the iPhone 5 can’t possibly launch any earlier than October. What’s going on?
As per usual, Apple’s going to make sure we’re all kept in the dark as much as possible ahead of the iPhone 5’s launch. But, as always, rumours and leaks have started to filter out. Following yesterday’s news that the iPhone 5 could be hewn from Liquidmetal, today sees whispers of chip delays that’ll force Apple’s hand.
iPhone 5: Liquidmetal design leaks out
According to Qualcomm, there’s currently far too much demand for both its Snapdragon S4 chipsets and 4G LTE radios, the latter of which Apple will want to include in the iPhone 5. The demand is causing delays, which means that the iPhone 5 probably won’t be able to launch this side of October.
Now, Apple will no doubt want to make out that an October launch date is in effect by choice – and in fairness, no missable launch date has been scheduled anyway – but that may not be the case. Either way, it makes sense to suggest that Apple will now settle into an October launch for each new iPhone from here on, and that the days of annual June updates are behind us.
Were you saving your pennies for a summer iPhone 5 launch? Does this news affect your upgrade decision at all? Let us know below.
