Apple Confirms New Product Launch in September Quarter

As far back as March, the rumor mill has had Apple’s next smartphone pinned to launch in the Fall of this year. This meant that Apple would forgo a Summer iPhone announcement, which has been a ritualistic over the last 3 years.

Now that we’re nearing the end of July and inching closer to the rumored Fall timeframe, it seems like iPhone rumors are spinning out of control. But in all reality, Apple never officially said anything about releasing a new device this year, until now…

During Apple’s quarterly earnings call yesterday, the company posted some staggering sales figures that blew analysts’ expectations out of the water. Given that kind of success, it was rather odd that the company forecasted its revenue to drop 12% next quarter.

Apparently, participating media members agreed. The first question of the Q&A session was in regards to the 12% downtick. Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer fielded the query:

“For education buying season, September is weighted toward higher education, and we expect increases there. We also expect increases in iPhone, etc. There is also a future product transition that we are not going to talk about today. Those factors are already in our guidance.”

The next quarter spans over 3 months, so this doesn’t help us much in guessing a release date. But I think it’s safe to say that if you were planning on purchasing a new iDevice in the near future, you might want to hold out for a month or two.

What do you think the “product transition” is? iPhone 4S/5? iPad HD?

[MacRumors]