14 DAY TRIAL // Sources reportedly familiar with Apple’s plans say the company’s suppliers are to start production of the iPhone 5 as early as July, contradicting reports that Cupertino had not yet issued the production roadmap for its next generation of smartphones.
The most recent speculation and rumors centering around Apple’s iPhone 5 said production would begin in September, as Apple was struggling to rack up components not only for its new iPhone, but for the iPad 2 as well.
The lack of an iPhone 5 roadmap was seen as a clear indication that there were no immediate plans to manufacture the new phone, sources talking to Asian publication Digitimes indicated last week.
Around the same time, analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities told investors, "Apple is keeping its iPhone 5 cards extra close to the vest on this launch to avoid a falloff in iPhone 4 demand ahead of a refresh, especially given the February launch of the CDMA iPhone 4 with Verizon."
Via an intriguing little tweet, Reuters now reports that “Apple suppliers [are] to start production of [the] next-gen iPhone in July, Aug”, with shipping estimated around September.
A more extensive report from the agency specifically cited three unidentified people familiar with the matter as saying that the new handset will look pretty much the same as the current iPhone 4, though it will boast a faster processor.
That processor is, most likely, the A5 dual core chip with 9 times the graphical output power of its predecessor (A4) currently found in the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4th generation, and the original iPad.
The A5 debuted this year inside the iPad 2 and, just like last year, the iPhone refresh will most likely see some of the tablet’s inner workings ported over to the smartphone.
Even with the iPhone 5 shipping in September, the timeframe still breaks Apple’s annual refresh cycles.