Apple usually launches new iPhones in September (and iPads in October), but this time around the company could bring the ‘iPhone 6s’ and ‘iPhone 6s Plus’ to market a bit earlier, if a new analysis by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is an indication.
In a note to clients, a copy of which was obtained by The China Post, Kuo writes that Apple will announce the new handsets in August before making them available for sale in September, the time frame that suggests the possibility of pre-orders in late August.
Making the new phones available for sale earlier than usual would help Apple climb out of the slow summer season, Kuo wrote.
He also predicted that Foxconn, Apple’s longtime contract manufacturer, would land up to 70 percent of the orders to assemble the next-generation iPhone. Shipments of the 4.7-inch model are expected to account for about 66 percent of the total, with the larger 5.5-inch model accounting for the remainder.
Moreover, Kuo is adamant that Foxconn will be the sole assembler of a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which he expects to launch in the fourth quarter of this year.
Kuo’s been right as much as he’s been wrong, his reputation and proven track record notwithstanding. That being said, I’d take this report with a grain of salt. Apple has never unveiled an iPhone in August. Previous models were announced at WWDC in June/July, as well as in September and October, but never in August.
The sad truth is that many analysts base their predictions on supply chain chatter, simply keeping tabs on reports by Taiwanese media like the rest of us.
In this particular case, a relatively unknown Taiwanese media outlet called UDN, whose supply chain reports indeed are increasingly more accurate than those churned out by the notorious DigiTimes, was first to report back on Monday that the next iPhone(s) would be announced in August.
The UDN report (Google Translate), highlighted by G for Games, claims that the yield rates for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus components are so good that Apple has decided to move the release date for this year’s iPhone lineup from September to August.
Another factor which might have contributed to Apple’s decision: Samsung has apparently expedited the release plan for the next Galaxy Note phablet by more than a month, to a late July release, to get in front of Apple’s iPhone announcement, if a sketchy rumor sourced from WhoWiredKorea is to be trusted.
What do you guys make of this?
Should Apple expedite the next iPhone’s release?
Source: The China Post