14 DAY TRIAL // A person who insists is not privy to Apple’s roadmap is opining that it makes sense for the company to launch its next-generation smartphone this September.
That person is Tony Johnson, UK manager of Griffin Technology. His company creates some of the best iPhone accessories out there.
They make it their business to follow Apple and guess their next move.
During a chat with the folks at T3.com, Johnson opined that “there will be some sort of announcement from Apple in September.”
He doesn’t push the iPhone 5 announcement, noting that "what that will refer to as to whether iPod, iPhone or iPad, we just don’t know."
However, he strongly believes that Apple will announce the new iPhone around that time.
“We have a longstanding relationship with Apple but we are not treated special in any way,” Johnson said.
He added, “all we can do is work on the history of Apple releases which is what all the companies do.”
There have been multiple rumors regarding a potential launch date for the handset.
According to Johnson, these are not to be taken too seriously:
“These rumours don’t really affect what we are doing in terms of product development,” Johnson stated.
“It just means that this increased online chatter creates an added nervousness ahead of the official announcement,” he said.
Cupertino was reportedly supposed to launch its latest iPhone this summer, in accordance with the company’s annual tradition, but an allegedly overheating A5 chip has prompted Apple to push its release date to fall 2011.
There are still many who believe the iPhone 5 will be preceded by the iPhone 4S - an incremental upgrade over the iPhone 4, much like the iPhone 3GS incremented the iPhone 3G.