Okay Geek Farm
Why the iPhone 5 may not be announced until Fall 2011
Brandon Davenport
I received an email from Apple today (like everyone else did), inviting me to WWDC 2011 and I couldn’t help but think immediately about the iPhone 5, Verizon and AT&T — iOS 5 didn’t even cross my mind. When you really think of it, if Apple were to announce an iPhone 5 in June, this could spark madness in the crowds of people who had purchased a Verizon iPhone 4 in February. Here’s why Apple could wait until Fall 2011 to release the iPhone 5.
When it comes to Apple and release schedules, it’s like clock-work. Every single product in their lineup has a rigid release schedule that hardly ever changes, and keeps press, fans and news folk prepared. When you think of it, it’s genius and when WWDC rolls around, everyone knows a new iPhone will be shown off on stage — but probably not this year.
Apple threw a giant curve-ball earlier this year on Feburary 10th when Apple released the iPhone 4 on Verizon, and people like us were completely caught off guard. We we’re expecting a joint announcement from Apple and Verizon announcing the iPhone 5 on both carriers in June, and they did just that, but 6 months early, and yet here we are stille expecting an iPhone 5 at WWDC.
It makes sense, here’s why
When you think of it, as soon as a new iPhone is released, developers scramble for weeks trying to take advantage of the new features and iOS updates. The reason why people even pay attention to WWDC is because we know a new iPhone is waiting to be announced, and to me the timing seems a bit broken for today’s tech world.
iOS has grown into an entity on it’s own, and I really think it deserves it’s very own event along-side OS X — not needing to be over-shadowed by a new iPhone. iOS now powers the iPad, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iPhone and now, even Apple TV and OS X is getting a huge update. Apple is really trying to create organic excitement about software without the need of iPhone hardware buzz, and I think it’s a good thing.
Apple is turning more and more into a software company, and they are really trying to place a lot of focus on the operating systems and apps they, and the developers create. Having WWDC completely dedicated to software and operating systems could really give it the publicity it needs, and the iPhone 5 will have no trouble capturing attention on it’s own.
In Summary
The iPhone 5 will most likely be announced in Fall 2011 to make sure everyone has a fair chance to enjoy their current iPhone, but be able to upgrade just in time for the holidays. It will also give developers much more time to fine-tune new apps and create apps for the new things announced at WWDC. It’s a smart move, and we don’t see anything that could impact Apple (and the consumer) negatively but…
What do you think about this? What could Apple’s new schedule be?
