German Wireless Carrier And Verizon Virtually Confirm New iPhone Ship Date, But There Could Be Supply Shortages
Posted by CharlesMoore on Friday Aug 24, 2012 Under iPhone 5 News, iPhone 5 PredictionsThe German mobile service carrier, Mobilecom Debitel has dropped some broad hints about the immanence of a major new smartphone announcement, posting on their site (Google machine translation):
“The New Smartphone
Stay up to date! We will inform you about news on the new smartphone.
And … what can the new smartphone be?
Is it the summer temperatures, or is it the heat from the rumor mill, which can increase the temperature curve of the fans? Coming soon, in the late summer, a new smartphone; the world eagerly awaits all…
The new smartphone special surprises? Perhaps a bigger screen of 4 inches or a thinner cell touchscreen? The world expects a faster processor or higher graphics performance? Maybe even a memory of 1 GB? It will be exciting …
No doubt…..
Meanwhile, citing sources at TechCrunch, ZNet’s Jason D. O’Grady notes in his The Apple Core blog that Verizon Wireless has imposed an all-staff vacation blackout from Friday, September 21 through Sunday, September 30, which would be consistent with the new iPhone announcement and release timeline predicted by iMore’s René Ritchie earlier this month, that has Apple’s new iPhone announcement/media event falling on Wednesday, September 12, with pre-orders to begin immediately after, followed by shipping and retail availability beginning Friday, September 21.
However, while presumably Apple will have stockpiled as much product as is possible by Sept. 21, rumors persist of a likelihood that they won’t be able to balance anticipated demand with ample supply due to component production yield issues. We’ve previously noted here reports from Digitimes’ unnamed moles in Apple’s upstream supply chain that yields of new in-cell display panels for the new iPhone have been far lower than was hoped, although there are now reports that LG and Sharp are finally getting their in-cell panel production into gear.
Nevertheless, Digitimes’ Cage Chao and Steve Shen noted this week that projected shipments of a new iPhone in the third quarter of 2012 are still likely to fall below 15 million units, compared with the 20 million units forecast previously, due to low yield rates in the production of not only the in-cell touch panels, but also of the new (8-pin?) iPhone Dock connectors, again according to unnamed sources in Apple’s supply chain.
Chao and Shen report that not only do the previously-cited issues related to poor yields of in-cell panels have potential to disrupt Apple’s shipping schedule for new iPhones, the latest rumors are suggesting that yield rates of the new Dock connectors at major Apple subcontractor Foxconn International Holdings have also been unexpectedly low, attributable in part to insufficient supply of some key materials.
Consequently Chao and Shen’s sources suggest that a reduction in the first batches of new iPhone shipments could result in short supplies at the retail end in the early going, although that would presumably result in a sales boost for the new models in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first half of 2013, presuming that the production bottlenecks get ironed-out.
The takeaway here is that if you’re really hurting for an iPhone 5 (or whatever the new Apple handset gets officially named), you’re probably best-advised to get a pre-order in on announcement day or very shortly thereafter, or plan to line up early at an Apple Store on Sept. 21.
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August 24th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Getting more and more anxious…
At least we have college football to keep us busy until the new phone comes out
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August 24th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
I’m cool with the release date, that means I can finally use the consumer release of iOS 6 (although the betas have been extremely stable). I just want to see that “surprise feature” for iOS 6 I keep hearing about and the marketing feature for the iPhone 5 (like Siri for the 4S). I really hope the design is better than that purported prototype though. It’s not bad looking, but it’s still too similar to the 4/4S design. I like the other design with the alloy unibody that looked more like the iPad. That was a pretty good looking design. Anyways, still playing the waiting game for now.
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August 24th, 2012 at 4:25 pm
I’m German, and I can say here are many “iPhone 5″ ads. And all of them do it, just like last year.
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August 24th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Did you see? Samsung was just ordered to pay Apple 1.5 BILLION in damages for patent infringement. The Galaxy Tab did not infringe, though.
They violated the patents on the design of the phone, pinch and zoom and the bounce back features.
It was in the Washington Post news alert.
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August 24th, 2012 at 8:40 pm
I was almost starting to think that I was going to get my new iPad Mini. After thinking about getting my 4S last year – the logistics involved – their vast supply of backup resources….. I’m starting to think, how the heck are they going to supply an iPad mini just a few weeks after the iPhone?
It will be chaos! Albeit a happy chaos. I’m starting to think my iPad Mini is out of the picture. But then again, that guy at the Loop said it was coming and he’s usually right.
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August 24th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Sorry about the insofar off-topic
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August 24th, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Me, too, Ron7624. I am sorry that I went off topic.
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August 24th, 2012 at 8:50 pm
if they have even less phones this year as opposed to last year, it will take even longer for stores to be able to keep stock in. That won’t be good for when the holidays come up. Well, for the consumers, anyway.
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August 25th, 2012 at 11:39 am
All of this release date speculation is driving me crazy. In regards to when to put my iP4S up for sale. I know for certain I’ll being selling it within the next three weeks, when exactly (in 7, 14, or 21 days) is a really tough decision/guess.
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August 25th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Im sure the iPhone 5 will be so popular theres nothing Apple can do to prevent shortages.
75% of all the college students I know that dont have an iPhone, are all waiting for the iPhone 5 to come out so they can upgrade to it. I ask literally almost everyone… we always end up in the phone conversations haha. For example, I went to go check out my college friend’s new apartment & I met all of his roommates, and eventually we talked about phones, and ended up every single one of us are all waiting for the iPhone 5. Its way more popular than people think… honestly. I really think the press and rumor blogs are underestimating how many people will actually upgrade to the iPhone 5
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August 25th, 2012 at 8:47 pm
The Samsung verdict makes me sick. So much for competition in America. When a company can win legal protection for a rectangular rounded corner device and pinch to zoom its a sorry day for consumers. Our patent office gets the blame as much as the anticompetitive stance of Apple. Nice home team advantage judge.
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August 26th, 2012 at 12:04 am
@DudeAbides, I’d love to talk to the jury, and understand where they came from on this, but rest assured, the lawyers will get a big chunk of that $1.5B in the appeals.
And a sorrier day is when a person or company must share what it invents with it’s competitors. What would Apple’s motivation be to invent the iPhone 5 (or anything?) if they had to share the technology and patents with Google and Microsoft?
@GetSwole, man, I hope there are shortages, and then more phones to fill those shortages, then more shortages on top of that! (Me and my 50 shares of AAPL hope so…)
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August 26th, 2012 at 12:48 am
@Jeff, I really understand your point about patent protection, but so many of these patents are absurd. It like Henry Ford patenting the shape of the wheel so others couldn’t use round wheels. Apple changed the smart phone business for the better and others copied the leader, same as in any other industry. Didn’t Apple copy the Xerox interface for years and the negotiate out of it? This just seems extreme to me and has the appearance of being afraid of the competition. I’d rather see the battles in the marketplace.
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August 26th, 2012 at 10:30 am
@DudeAbides, I understand your point too. I’d love to see patent law change for high technology patents, as 19 years is an eternity in this realm. 19 years ago, we were looking at the Pentium 2 chips, 4 gigs of RAM was way out there, and a 200 MB (yes, megabyte) hard drive was the norm. If we were to have an iron clad 6 year patent to protect the innovators of high-tech, and get the ideas out there, I’d go for that.
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August 26th, 2012 at 10:34 am
oops… 20 and 14 years for the patents… just looked at the patent website. Where I work, I helped develop something that could possibly be patented, but the design was fairly obvious, so we just let it go.
(from the patent office):
How long does patent protection last?
For applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, utility and plant patents are granted for a term which begins with the date of the grant and usually ends 20 years from the date you first applied for the patent subject to the payment of appropriate maintenance fees. Design patents last 14 years from the date you are granted the patent. No maintenance fees are required for design patents.
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August 26th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
I’m going to be constantly checking the apple website ready to preorder immediately in an attempt to order before they sell out which I’m assuming will be within minutes under the hour
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August 26th, 2012 at 6:45 pm
Patents serve a useful purpose – they encourage (reward) innovation. There’s a line between immitating and copying – cross over that line and expect to be sued.
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August 26th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Please get rid of the ads on the phone :/ I know they pay for the site and all but they’re very annoying.
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August 26th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
@DudeAbides – apple haven’t patented rectangles with rounded corners, that would be absurd. Rounded rectangular icons is part of their design dress, which is a list of about 8 design elements which TOGETHER make the patent. On their own the design elements are not patented. As for pinch to zoom. It seems obvious to us now, but I know for a fact that most people need to be shown how do do it the first time they pick up an i-device. Just because it quickly becomes intuitive, doesn’t make it obvious from the beginning, therefore it’s a legitimate patent.
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August 26th, 2012 at 11:54 pm
@crop, if you’re willing to send Michael a couple of dollars each time you visit the site, I’m sure he’ll entertain getting rid of the ads. Michael deserves the money he gets from the hits, especially since this is a great site, good information, lively and civil conversation, and it looks good. I’m glad it’s free for me, and however it gets paid for, it’s a good deal.
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August 27th, 2012 at 4:53 am
Been reading reading whirling reports that AT&T and Verizon staff has been given a vacation blackout from September 21-30, which may very well indicate the iP5 arrival. I don’t believe, if true that this would occur for any other product than the iP5.
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August 27th, 2012 at 4:58 am
@Cropaceous – Well, if an iPhone is jailbroken one can install a ad block tweak, such as those extensions available for the various browsers.
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August 27th, 2012 at 4:59 am
@Cropaceous – Well, if an iPhone is jailbroken one can install an ad blocker tweak, such as those extensions available for the various browsers.
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August 27th, 2012 at 8:02 am
@genx, you can say that again… That’s one of the mysteries of here. If I double click the submit button, it gives me the duplicate post message.
Oh well.
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August 27th, 2012 at 9:43 am
I don’t think any shrotages will hurt Apple, it’ll lead to pictures of queues outside Apple stores on launch day which is always great publicity.
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August 27th, 2012 at 9:45 am
I also saw the court case result between Samsung and Apple. It’s a tough call either way and each person i speak to about it seems to have a different opinion but I don’t think Samsung did themselves any favours with the jury when they knowingly released the data to the press after the judges had rules it not be allowed in the courtroom.
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