14 DAY TRIAL // Apple will launch both its fifth-generation iPhone and the iPad 3 this fall, according to an unconfirmed report from China.
Presumably in contact with some of the manufacturers in Apple’s supply chain, the China Times (via cultofmac.com) says that suppliers are currently preparing 400,000 “trial run” units of the iPhone 5.
The device is on track for a mid-September launch, according to the source, and it will be followed by the iPad 3, reportedly slated for launch around Thanksgiving.
The iPad 3 is said to have been delayed due to component shortages, but there’s not a single good reason why Apple would have shipped the iPad 3 as early as this summer.
As usual, readers should take this kind of news with a grain of salt.
The iPhone 5, however, should have already arrived to the market, hadn’t Apple encountered manufacturing difficulties, component delays and / or shortages, and perhaps even issues during prototype testing (if claims of the A5 overheating are to be believed).
The company headquartered at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, has broken the iPhone’s annual refresh cycle at WWDC 2011 where Steve Jobs and his colleagues talked OS X Lion, iCloud, and iOS 5.
The fifth-generation iPhone, whenever it’s released, is expected to employ a thinner, tapered design with a larger screen area, a dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and other minor enhancements.
A survey carried out by PriceGrabber (a subsidiary of Experian) has revealed that many iPhone fans have already made up their minds about buying Apple’s next iPhone, even though they know nothing about the actual handset - what it looks like, what networks it will work on, the price etc.
Nonetheless, those who are sworn iPhone 5 buyers have two demands: a longer lasting battery and a reasonable price.