For the first time, a new version of Apple's iPhone may not be released during the summer, but rather this fall.
"The plan right now is to wait to launch iOS 5 until the fall, we’ve heard from two solid sources," reports TechCrunch Monday. Apple, of course, does not comment on such matters, but there's good reason to think the delay makes sense. Making the iPhone 5 parallel with the release of the new version of the mobile operating system, iOS 5, could make perfect sense.
First, the popular phone only recently became available on Verizon's network, after an AT&T stranglehold for more than three years. Folks just buying the iPhone 4 in February on Verizon might not be too keen to see a new one out in June or July, when the phone traditionally has been released since first coming onto the market in 2007.
Secondly, with Apple set to "unveil the future of iOS," its mobile operating system, and the Mac OS at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference June 6-10 in San Francisco, that event could set the stage to announce, but not release, the new version of iOS, an increasingly important operating system for Apple and its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Indications are that iOS 5 will make more use of the cloud, or Web-based services for things like storing music, than the current iOS 4 does.
The new version of iOS "will launch in the fall and will be major revamp," says TechCrunch, and it is "also likely to coincide with the release of a new type of iPad."
AppleInsider also quotes a report Monday from Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, which says essentially the same thing.
"Apple’s apparent focus on software in its WWDC announcement backs up what my own sources are saying about the annual conference," he writes. "That is, expect a software show in 2011, not a hardware event." He goes on to say:
At past WWDCs, Apple might show off a new piece of hardware, but Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg warns about getting too caught up in the past. “You get caught up in patterns, and it holds true, until it doesn’t,” Gartenberg told The Loop. “There is no reason for Apple to follow a predictable yearly pattern, and it keeps their competition off guard a little bit.”
More about Apple and iPhone:
- Apple to 'unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS' in June
- Report: iPhone 5 to have huge screen
- iPhone 5 rumor roundup: what to expect from the next iPhone
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