“People Familiar With The Situation” Say 4-Inch iPhone 5 Screen Orders To Begin In June
Posted by Michael Nace on Wednesday May 16, 2012 Under Apple Rumors, iPhone 5 Rumor
Citing “people familiar with the situation,” WSJ is reporting that orders for new 4-inch-plus displays for the iPhone 5 will only commence in June, further suggesting a fall release.
Today, WSJ offered up a new rumor, citing their “people familiar with the situation,” regarding the iPhone 5′s display and production schedule. The report, filed by Lorainne Luk and Juno Osawa, further support the wide-held belief that the new iPhone will feature a screen size increase somewhere in the 4-inch range. This may not come as big news to those who have been following iPhone 5 rumors for the past year or so, but the WSJ article’s claims regarding the production and order schedule for the iPhone 5′s new display is noteworthy:
“Production is set to begin next month for the screens, which measure at least 4 inches diagonally compared with 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S, the latest phone from Apple, the people said.”
Assuming that WSJ has the story right, this news would obviously disqualify the iPhone 5 from making its debut at the WWDC this year, as it remains to be seen if there would be enough lead time between now and the actual launch of a post-WWDC-announced iPhone 5 to produce enough iPhone 5s for a launch in early July. Jonny Evans at Computerworld makes this point well, stating: “Given the need to stockpile millions of these displays in order to build millions of iPhones, commencing display production marries well with claims of a September launch for the device.”
Stalwart June iPhone 5 release date truthers will ask: how accurate and reliable is WSJ and their “people familiar with the situation?”
Pretty accurate and reliable.
I went back into WSJ’s archives to see what they were saying about iPhone 5 production last year. The most pertinent article I found was from Ms. Luk herself, who wrote this on July 7th, 2011 in her article, “Apple Orders Parts For iPhone Upgrade:
“Apple has placed orders for key components used in a next-generation iPhone it is preparing to launch sometime in the third quarter, according to people familiar with the situation.”
Later in this article, Luk gets predictions of the 2011 iPhone wrong, as it did not turn out to feature any form factor upgrades. However, tapping her Asian industry sources, she made a similar report last July that resulted in an iPhone 4S announcement in early October.
The same day, Ms. Luk also filed this report together with the oft-cited Yukari Iwatani Kane, noting: “Apple has ordered key components for a new iPhone it is aiming to launch by the end of September, said people familiar with the situation.” Luk and Kane’s prediction of a September launch was short by a month, but given the fact that Luk’s report today is pointing to a June production ramp-up (as opposed to July last year), her story fits together with Jonny Evans’ assertion.
“It’s the Week We’ve all Been Waiting For.”
The slogan for this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, the event that Apple used to announce previous iPhone iterations up until last year, is “It’s the Week We’ve all Been Waiting For.” With the WSJ now asserting that iPhone 5 production has yet to officially begin, and a report from earlier in the week claiming that, according to the Foxconn CEO, the iTV will not see production commence until later in the year, it remains too be seen what Apple will release at this year’s WWDC that will live up to its own slogan.
iOS 6 and a new generation of MacBooks seems like a foregone conclusion, but it remains to be seen if these releases would “wow” Appledom to the level that would make WWDC week seem like “the week we’ve all been waiting for.”
By Michael Nace
Michael Nace is the Publisher of the iPhone 5 News Blog and iPhone 6 News Blog. He has published articles about the iPhone since 2010.
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May 16th, 2012 at 10:44 am
I’m thinking June announcement at the WWDC. Launch in July (limited supply). More supply in August. I hope these rumors are right about the move to a 4″ screen. I just hope they keep the same aspect ratio.
As some of you may remember, the iPhone 5 was Steve Jobs last project. He put his last bit of energy into making this the perfect phone.
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May 16th, 2012 at 10:46 am
I think consumer demand for a larger screen may trump what Apple thinks you should have.
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May 16th, 2012 at 10:54 am
@Core2:
I agree. However, I don’t think slapping on a bigger screen will be enough to make the iPhone 5 the best phone. Apple has to have some unique feature that will set the iPhone 5 apart from the competetion.
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:00 am
The aspect ratio can’t change. 500k+ applications will not get re-sized by developers.
A slightly bigger screen gives room for a larger battery, which really is needed NOW for the demands of the 4s, but even more if 4G is added, which is also expected from most consumers.
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:27 am
If the IP5 really was Steve Jobs last project it must be ready by now! He passed over 6 months ago and they must have done work on it before he died.
I’m still for a June announcement with availability maybe July.
A hot comment -- What do you think?
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:37 am
@core2
I don’t think apple cares if 500k apps don’t get resized. If they thought a new aspect ratio was better they would change and let app devs either redo the app or shoehorn the current one in with black bars wherever they needed them. Also I do agree that the battery demands are going to be massive and an increased screen size would allow more battery space. Apple though has got to at least hint at the iphone in june though because with the galaxy sIII coming out (and android becoming not so crappy) and a bunch of people due for contract renewals this summer, Apple would be smart to have some sort of release even if it is something like a limited release that @JustinQ stated
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:42 am
@JustinQ
Apple definitely would not announce it in June and only have very limited supply. They know their next phone is going to be very successful and they will want to have as much supply as possible to meet the demand. When they announce it (I’m betting no earlier than September) they will have supplies ready, especially because holiday demand will be huge and they won’t risk losing sales just because people there is limited supply.
@Core2
I agree!
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:46 am
@Cocoapro
If Apple announces the new phone and doesn’t have the supply, they will lose millions from the sale of the 4S. If they announce a new phone the demand for the current one will drop off completely. It wouldn’t make sense from a marketing perspective.
Naturally, if they don’t announce it next month (which they won’t) then everybody knows it will come in October. Every legit rumor (or supposed insider information) says it’s coming in the fall. Everybody just hopes for it sooner but that doesn’t mean it will happen.
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May 16th, 2012 at 11:58 am
@core2
I agree on both points but the width of a 4:3 ratio 4″+ iPhone scares me. I personally will loose one handed functionallity. I can just do it now on my 4S. (but I have short fingers)
I wonder if they could do the 4″ widescreen idea and let iOS center the old resolution apps and letter box around them. And if the app developers want to re scale their apps, then they can. If they don’t, they will work and looks exactly as they do now.
I would be ok with that. And YES more battery would be cool. My 4S actually does good on battery life considering my usage but more is always better.
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May 16th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
I do agree with you but apple has done the limited supply before (think ipad 2) and I don’t know but the week we have all been waiting for seems like to big of a tag line for anything other then that. No other apple product has such a large following. Updated macs with mountain lion (an incremental upgrade) and a beta of ios6 seems like it wouldn’t be “the week” . Apple knows we all expected a major change last Oct and yet it was mostly software related. So i’m saying either its the iphone5 or Apple has something else up their sleeve for that week.
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May 16th, 2012 at 12:45 pm
@cocoapro13
I agree!
After the let down in October of a refreshed iPhone and the damp squib that was the ‘New iPad’ (iPad 3) in March Apple need to gain ground again by releasing something new. Whether that is as @cocoapro13 says something new or the new iPhone we will have to wait and see but surely it has to be the phone this time?
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May 16th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
I seem to care less over the iPad announcements, as my 1st gen does what I need it to.
However I want more from a phone than what the 4s can currently do.
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May 16th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
June will be a great month. Google rumored to announce a line of Nexus phones and Jelly Bean, Microsoft to showcase windows phone 8, and the Apple show.
By the end of June, I will have a ton of more information (and a ton of more rumors) to pick out my next phone.
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May 16th, 2012 at 1:40 pm
I need some new mock ups to come out.
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May 16th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
It would be interesting if they matched the cases released just prior to the 4s launch last year.
Interesting that all different companies started making identical cases….
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May 16th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
We all want a June release. Unfortunately it is just not going to happen. You can pretty much disregard any and all rumors and just know that there will always be at least one year between iPhone iterations. It would be a poor business decision to release the new phone in June. I want it so bad it hurts. I just feel as though that is the reality.
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May 16th, 2012 at 4:01 pm
The Casemategate scandal where they showed aluminium backed looking iPhones (like the iPad design) in their cases on their website last year just before the Apple October announcement of the 4s has always stuck in the back of my mind. Maybe I got completely sucked in and it was a way to drive traffic to their site but I still think the glimpses of the phones looked like something Apple would release. If not, where did they get them from?
I believe Apple meant to release a newly designed iPhone last year but had to switch to plan B at the last minute and all we got was the 4s. I think the IP5 or whatever it gets named is long overdue. The IP4 was first seen in June 2010 at the WWDC and has remained largely the same since. If we have to wait until October this year this phone will have been around in its current format for 2 years 4 months! Compare that to Samsung and the rest of the Android fleet and it is no wonder that the hardware on the Android phones has overtaken Apple as they have given them years to do so.
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May 16th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
@all
1. Aspect Ratio: Think black lines on current apps, and new ones to have the new aspect ratio. Ever run an iPhone app on your iPad?
2. Limited release: That can cut both ways, the first is “hey, we’re out, and you’re the beta testers, early adopters” along with “ohhh I got one and it’s AWESOME! Be one of the cool kids and get one!” The second is: “oh crap, I have to wait 4 weeks to maybe get one. I’ll get a GooglePhone instead.”
3. Apple won’t wait less than a year, as that will screw the already owners. First, that’s not true about the owners. They can get one when their contract is up, or pay the upgrade fee. Are current iPhone owners going to say, “THAT STINKS! I’m going Google or Windows Phone, because a multi-billion, multi-national corporation didn’t release a phone the day I wanted it!”? Second, if Apple really really really wants to get more people as possible, they’ll release new when it’s available. There may be 200 million iphones out there, but there are 6.8 Billion people that DON’T have one.
4. Cut sales of iPhone 4S. Apple takes care of that with price cuts on the older stuff. How many teenagers got a “free” 3GS when the 4S came out? (or how many parents got one to be cool, like the kids?) Plus, every new phone does that.
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May 16th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
I don’t take much thought into the tag line of the week we’ve all been waiting for. Apple’s business model has always been about products that THEY want to push in the time that THEY want to. Everybody wants a new iPhone, but Apple is going to tell us that what we really want is some new macbook or something like that. Apple always dictates the terms of what WE want….otherwise we would have gotten a sweet new model iphone last October instead of the 4S. Maybe i’m just too skeptical but I don’t think that what “we” have been waiting for is the same thing that Apple thinks we have been waiting for.
I’m still sticking to my gut feeling….no new iphone until the fall and no announcement of it at WWDC either.
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May 16th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
I posted this article on the iOS 6 News Blog: http://www.ios6.info/2012/05/more-ios-6-evidence-showing-up-in-web-developer-logs-ui-overhaul-not-expected/ The “lead” in this story is that iOS 6 is showing up again in web logs, but that is actually not a new story or surprising. More interesting is the growing belief that iOS 6 will be a mere refresh of iOS 5.1 in terms of its user interface. If iOS 6 isn’t going to make a really big splash, then perhaps it is further evidence that the iPhone 5 could ship with an iOS 5.2? It still doesn’t do anything to explode the WSJ article today, but it does help to explode the belief that the iPhone 5 could never ship without iOS 6 alpha.
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May 16th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
@Mike D I agree it is looking like an October release. I still say waiting until October is a terrible business decision. All of those iPhone 4 owners with their contracts up just when there will be great new Android phones that will be coming out, not to mention that wonderful little thing called the Lumia 900. All this while Apple fans (myself include) will be looking at a phone that hasn’t been upgraded in any real way in 2 years. If Tim Cook thinks Apple can overcome all of that by just being Apple he is sadly mistaken. I’ve been an Apple fan since my little kid fingers hit the keys on my first Apple IIe, but even I am seriously thinking about what non Apple phone I will choose if the new iPhone does not release in June. I’ll probably go for the Lumia 900 or the Galaxy S3.
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May 16th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
I WANT/ AM GETTING IT! It better come out this summer. Sales slumping, people dying waiting for it still using their 3gs’s! Its time for the Big o5.
@spastic Um, spastic, are you counting our comments? How did you know that my last post was 214?
2nd lead commentor, leader, ruler, I am USAF!
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May 16th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
I hope its June too, if even only in limited supplies. I’ll be on the preorder site as soon as it opens with omg credit card out.
@undfeatable on the right side it has a ‘top iphone 5 contributors’ column with the numbers. I’m not stocking you I promise
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May 16th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Uvids will be a great app for the iPhone 5.
It was just released in April in the app store.
It beats Netflix in many ways.
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May 16th, 2012 at 8:29 pm
@ Mike D.
I am one person who IS salivating over the prospect of a new Macbook Pro. I’m thinking of something that is as light as a Macbook Air but with more storage and speed. Drool drool. I’m living with my 4s for the two years of the contract, so am definitely NOT getting excited over the iP5. Although SWMBO’s contract on her iP4 expires well before mine, so she is looking for a new form factor,.
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May 17th, 2012 at 12:40 am
@Spastic, um, my bar is on the left. And thanks. Oh, btw, I hope your not STOCKING me, who would want to invest in me? Im a terrible company.
“When ever you were pushed off the pedestal, you must strive to climb back up” -undfeatable
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May 17th, 2012 at 1:45 am
@Undfeatable, yeah you’re right it’s on the left, no idea why I said right instead of left…I’m a terrible company too…
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May 17th, 2012 at 3:33 am
I hope the iOS6 offers some decent new features. despite owning iPhones of most iterations since inception I recently had a chance to play with the Nokia Lumia WinPho.
Even though I (unreasonably) expected to dislike it, I couldn’t help but enjoy the interface. It is very intuitive and did show iOS5 to be lacking in some areas.
Not enough to make me swap my 4S, but enought for me to start really watching the Nokias future development path. Coupled with Samsung’s new S3 on the market soon I really think Apple are going to have to raise their game to stay ahead of the competition.
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May 17th, 2012 at 8:51 am
I’m still hopeful for a June release, afterall I’d bet that most iPhone users get a 2 year contract with their phones, so it won’t affect a large number of 4S owners. However, it will affect a large number of 4 owners who are coming to the end of their 2 year cycle and are gagging for an upgrade and 3G/S owners that held out because they didn’t want the 4S, myself included.
I really want a new phone now. I’ve replaced the battery and wifi antenna in my 3GS, but I’m really starting to get frustrated with the speed and lack of memory. What’s more I have a pile of cash burning a hole in my pocket which I want to be spending in June/July.
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May 17th, 2012 at 8:56 am
The following message has been written by…Undfeatable:
I have been wondering if what would happen if I used SpasticPats account.
I just watched a special called igenius hosted by the mythbusters. It was all about Steve. You know, after reseeing all that has been done and how the company changes their products a lot once a newer technology becomes better (such as the ipod nano’s becoming so small), I truly believe a bigger display is coming. Also, they showed a lot of footage from the first release, and I think with that big of a crowd waiting basically mainly on the iPhone, their logo “the week we’ve all been waiting for” has to mean iPhone 5. There is no other explaination, and maybe apple just really is guarding their supply lines and making sure no data, except maybe fake data, gets out, so when the iPhone 5 DOES get released this summer, it will truly be unexpected and kill the market.
Sorry Spastic, just look at it this way, just one more comment for you!
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May 17th, 2012 at 8:58 am
I love how this blog now has a SpasticPat/Undfeatable sub-plot (even though I’m not exactly sure what that subplot is about).
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May 17th, 2012 at 10:26 am
neither do we…
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May 17th, 2012 at 11:25 am
@Craigers
I completely agree with the idea of what you are saying. However, last year they had all the 3GS users that had their contracts expire in the summer and they were forced to make the same decision – either buy a new phone or wait a few more months for the new iphone (which didn’t really seem like it was worth waiting for after it came out). Apple just needs to do it again and then they will have a usual pattern of releasing in the fall and put everybody in that same time frame (assuming they release one every fall thereafter).
The way I look at it is that I can wait a few more months for a new phone (as much as I want a new one now) and if the new iphone completely flops there will be other new phones around that time being released for the holidays which will have the latest and greatest technology.
Another thing to keep in mind is that ever since the release of the 4S, Apple has been distributing their phones to a lot of new carriers, both in the U.S. and globally. So they aren’t in a hurry to release a new phone for the few million that bought one in the summer of 2010 and are anxious to upgrade, when they have millions more that have recently bought the 4S and probably don’t care about the timing of the new iphone.
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May 17th, 2012 at 11:40 am
This is SpasticPat again. Will the real SpasticPat please stand up?
Anyways, BestBuy now has the iPhone 4 for $49 on contract, I know it’s not the 4S but that’s a good price if you need a low-end but high quality smartphone.
http://9to5mac.com/2012/05/17/best-buy-now-offers-iphone-4-for-49-on-contract/
Also, seems like my grandfathered unlimited data is all but gone this summer. Greedy b*stards are taking it away for their ‘sharing plans.’
http://9to5mac.com/2012/05/16/verizon-to-end-unlimited-data-plans-for-users-who-move-to-lte-phones-will-push-shared-data-plans-instead/
Doesn’t matter if you’re a long-time loyal customer who’s never complained about the stellar service and decent customer service I’ve enjoyed. If Sprint had good service in my area I’d switch, though I’m sure in a few months they’ll realize they need to do away with it as well.
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May 17th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
I think they should make the screen 4.3 it is perfect
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May 17th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Apple are in discussions with China Mobile to have their handsets and if it goes ahead that would spread the iPhone out to an additional 600 million customers!
I am still using an IP3G, I never liked the form factor of the IP4 which is my own opinion. Given that Apple could potentially coup all of the above custom with just one carrier I don’t think they are too bothered about when peoples contracts run out.
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May 18th, 2012 at 11:45 am
@Vernicularis
I completely agree. I’m not sure why people are “disliking” your comment. Apparently they don’t like the truth. Or they disagree with the opinion of the iphone 4 not looking cool, which I also agree with. From the minute it was revealed I thought “really? that’s not a very cool design.” Lots of people like it though. I think the silver band around it accentuates the thickness and makes it look a lot thicker than it is. It’s weird because it’s lighter than my phone but it actually feels a lot heavier. Everything about it just looks/feels like a brick.
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May 19th, 2012 at 3:45 am
I disagree slightly. I think Apple would be concerned with losing custom, especially through something as simple as a release date. An extra 600 million customers would be a bonus. But, from a business point of view, would it not be better to keep all the customers you already have and get an additional 600 million. Losing customers, no matter how many more you’re gaining, is not a good plan.
I totally agree with the comments about the 4/4S. It’s a brick, time for a nice curvy, sexy phone please Apple.
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May 19th, 2012 at 11:04 am
Apple have recently gained further adoption of their iPhone with several smaller US telecoms providers. There is no way they can keep everybody’s contract in mind when releasing a new phone as there are so many variables.
I expect that they will base their releases on when they feel the market is ready to accept a new phone or when it has finished all testing.
Apple have to expect to lose some customers due to this but given that they do produce high quality items with a stable platform can expect some people to wait or buy themselves out of an existing contract.
Regarding the form factor of the IP4, the fact that I don’t like it is just my own preference. There are many people who do like it and this is what makes us individuals.
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July 3rd, 2012 at 3:34 am
you better love the newest iphone ever. i wish i could have that one …someday!
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