Until October, news regarding the release of updated or new iPhone models is going to fly thick and fast. Memeburn reported yesterday that 4 October would be the launch date for the iPhone 5.
Today, Brian Blair, an analyst from Wedge Partners has said that when Apple holds its special event between 28 September and 5 October it will reveal new iDevices. Apparently, only one iPhone will be released and will be an upgraded model of the iPhone 4, rumoured to be the iPhone 4S.
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Blair said: “We expect the focus of the new iPhone will be iOS 5, a speedier A5 processor and a higher resolution 8MP camera with a small possibility of a larger four inch screen. We believe the casing will be largely similar to the iPhone with some particular modifications to the antennae. We don’t expect a second, dramatically different iPhone to accompany this as we don’t think Apple needs to have three models in the market to address the high end, mid-tier and low end since the iPhone 4 (with memory lowered to 8GB) will drop to US$99 and effectively attack those markets.”
The analysts further predict that, despite the hype surrounding an iPhone 5 launch, the release of two new iPhones would not make financial sense for Apple. Regarding this, Blair says “Why would Apple bump up only the processor specs of the iPhone 4 in addition to a newly designed iPhone 5 if the goal is to sell it into the pre-paid market at a lower cost?”
One new device which Wedge Partners expects to see at the upcoming launch is a 3G iPod Touch. The iPod touch would work much like the iPad, in that it will lack basic GSM connectivity but provide wireless data. Blair’s final estimation is that the new iPhone carrier Sprint will possibly sell upwards of 4.5 million iPhone over the course of 2012.
