Everything changes, even the beloved iPhone 4 – Apple have revealed a secret “transition” to be revealed soon, but what is it?Well, industry insiders believe the “future product transition” as revealed by Apple Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, yesterday is referring to its upcoming iPhone 5 release.
However, Oppenheimer failed to elaborate beyond this, insisting it was a matter “we will not talk about today”
The response was given to a question put by analyst from Morgan Stanley, who queried the forecasted revenue slump for the next quarter, which coincides with the expected release of the iPhone 5, of 12 per cent. A coincidence? We think not.
Revenue for the September end quarter is expected to be $25bn, Apple said at a conference call yesterday.
The reason for the fall? Dropping iPhone 4 sales as fans hold out for the next model. Apple posted a record breaking quarterly revenue of US$28.57 billion and net profit of US$7.31bn for the quarter, ended June 25.
The Cupertino giant will be encouraged by its stunning iPhone sales in the last quarter – selling 20.34 million handsets a 142 percent unit growth compared to this time last year year. It also surpassed expectations of 15 -20m unit handset sales.
It also sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
The rumour mill is in overdrive about the date Apple will release its fifth generation device, although considering the giant has just advertised for temporary iPhone sales staff for an “exciting project” between the dates of August 16th-October 29th within key retail stores, it appears the writing is on the wall.
iPhone 5 will have a faster processor so it can compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy II – the same A5 model that is in the iPad 2 – and a better camera, possibly with an 8-megapixel sensor, a polysilicon low temperature HD display, running on iOS 5, its new platform. This is almost a certainty.
An iPhone cheapie model is also said to be on the cards.
A September release will also allow Apple to “fuse its CDMA and GSM iPhone models into a single world-phone” system, which could be used regardless of country or carrier, according to Apple Insider.
iPhone CDMA is currently on sale in the US and is said to be hitting China Telecom later this year, under a new deal with the telco.
“Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.” Steve Jobs, Apple’s currently elusive CEO also added in a statement as part of the revenue announcement on Tuesday.
“Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50,” Apple’s CFO added.
