iPhone 5 Production Starts this Fall, Says Analyst

Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5 may not begin production until September 2011, or so say the analysts at Avian Securities. The firm recently released a research note saying that its supply chain checks seem to indicate that Apple is planning to launch this new iPhone later than usual – possibly late 2011, or even early 2012.

The analysts said they uncovered evidence of a “lower-cost, lower-spec” iPhone as well.

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As we know from Apple’s announcement in March, this year’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) appears to be focused solely on Apple software, both Mac OS and iOS. In the company press release about the event, it said that attendees would “preview” the next version of iOS – language that seems to indicate a first look at the software, but definitely not the launch of a new phone.

Multiple news outlets, including the well-connected Jim Dalrymple of The Loop and TechCrunch also confirmed via sources that, indeed, iOS 5 would be shown off at WWDC, but no new hardware would be announced at that time.

This new report from Avian is simply more confirmation of those same plans.

As reported by Business Insider, the full research note reads:

“Supporting out comments over the last month, conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone-5 will begin in September. This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario. In addition, our conversations also indicate the existence of a lower-spec/lower-priced iPhone in Apple’s roadmap. However, while our contacts have seen the placeholder in the Apple roadmap, they do not yet have insight into specs or production timing. This leads us to believe that any launch is likely a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event. As a reminder, Avian has uncovered several data-points in recent months pointing to the existence of a lower-spec/lower-price iPhone. A lower-spec/lower-price iPhone has also been speculated in the press and gadget blogs, though we do not believe consensus currently discounts the existence of such a model.”

While the analysts hedge a bit about the status of a possible lower-priced iPhone, it appears that the iPhone 5’s official reveal will occur this fall.

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