back to article Analyst: 'revolutionary, compelling' iPhone 5 out in October

Apple's iPhone 5 will be out in October and sport a "revolutionary" industrial design. That, plus 4G LTE connectivity courtesy of 28nm Qualcomm chippery, will make the handset a "compelling upgrade". So said market observer Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, a broker, yesterday. Munster said the iPhone 5's October debut may be …

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  1. Rupert Stubbs

    God knows how Piper Jaffray make their money, because so far they have been - like most so-called analysts - utterly useless at accurately predicting what Apple will or will not do.

    My bold, high-value prediction: at some stage in 2012 Apple will release a new iPhone, which will be called "The New iPhone", and will be better in lots of ways than the one before it. The blogosphere will shriek that it isn't as innovative as they predicted it should be, and marks the End of Apple. Lots of people will buy it.

    1. Peter 48
      Devil

      how?

      What sort of black magic are you using to foresee the future so accurately? Careful with such dark arts!

  2. Nev

    Analyst

    (noun) Someone who makes large amounts of money talking shit.

    1. Rameses Niblick the Third (KKWWMT)

      Re: Analyst

      And how! I mean, what the actual fuck does "the design win momentum" mean?!?

      1. frank ly
        Headmaster

        Re: Analyst

        'analyst': Assumes derivation from the word 'analyse'.

        The correct spelling in many cases is in fact, 'analist'.

      2. The Baron
        Holmes

        Re: Analyst

        > what the actual fuck does "the design win momentum" mean?!?

        I don't know, but the fact that in this case it is exceptionally strong is based on their checks, so it must be true.

        God help those companies whose design win momentum is only moderately strong.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    and for the last time?

    Possibly 5 will be the last high cost/high margin/high volume iPhone. Plenty to add this time round with 4G LTE, larger screen, better camera etc. to sustain an Apple £500 price point short term. Beyond the 5, not so much more for the time being to add to a general interest phone. Apple need to decide if they want to try for the low margin mass market or stick to their 10% tradition.

    1. Tapeador
      Meh

      Re: and for the last time?

      I disagree. They can just make their old phones gradually obsolete: one option open to Apple is to release novel 'must-have' software or digital functions (marketed with whatever bollocks transcendental narrative is to hand, and rather than solely novel hardware additions as you suggest), and compulsory iOS upgrades, the former being incompatible with earlier iPhones, and the latter slowing them down to a crawl. Isn't that the current strategy?

      I gather Apple are trying to develop a new sim, which itself, if it ever became dominant, would make obsolete most of the phones in the world, including their own, QED.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: and for the last time?

      HTC et al are continuing to pump out high-end £500 phones with ever-more powerful CPUs, and I think they reached the limit on what's useful a generation ago.

      History has shown that thinking "it doesn't need to get any faster" would be very naive, even stupid. Our predecessors didn't know different but we've seen it happen and should learn from that!

      Anyway I'm off to buy Apple shares :)

      1. qwarty

        Re: and for the last time?

        @JDX. One of my laptops, 6 years old, is still perfectly satisfactory. PS3XBox360 is getting a seven year run. Nothing stupid about the observation that technology developments often manifest in price and market changes, not performance. Personally, my own interests make me a performance junkie but not naive enough to apply my own requirements to everyone else.

        Beyond quad core, LTE, retina graphics and so on, its not hard to predict the focus on phones will move to cost reductions and expanding the market. Apple is well placed should it choose to change direction and address the lower end with new products rather than marking down older models.

  4. Greg J Preece

    "In any case, said Munster, the timing of the iPhone 5's launch doesn't matter: it'll so impress, fanboys and regular punters will snap it up."

    Well just how the fucking fuck would you know? How does he know it'll have a "revolutionary" new design? How can he know one damned thing about a design he almost certainly hasn't seen?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "....it'll so impress, fanboys" and the feable minded!

    iPhone needs to upgrade. It currently looks aging and iOS needs a complete overhaul to make it look and function as a game changer. Owners are unable to realise this for themselves.

    1. Synonymous Howard

      It needs it's curves back

      The 4/4S is too small and too angular for me .. my 3GS is slow in comparison but the feel of it makes me not want to change yet.

      A liquid-metal shell with curved (fits hand) back with glass in it to allow a more traditional antenna placement, would be a good start. With a 4.3 - 5 inch screen (could drop physical home button to give more room without going too much wider) ... they could keep the pixel count the same just by making them slightly larger and still keep "retina" marketing term (ala iPad3).

      NFC .. meh

      LTE 4G .. wait til 2014 in UK ... drains battery too much

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: It needs it's curves back

        Actually, liquid metal is transparent to GSM/LTE frequencies, so there's no need for glass in the back! Nifty, huh?

        Extra points to Apple and Corning if they can eventually figure out how to make a super Gorilla glass incorporating liquid metal instead of aluminumosilicate, which retains the elastic properties of liquid metal as well as retaining (obviously) the transparency of glass.

        If it was possible to make such a glass, a device built with it would be almost impervious to any conceivable accidental damage, and THAT would provide the basis of demand for a post iPhone 5 upgrade (after, of course, a still-obscenely-profitable but boringly incremental iPhone 5S "no big deal" upgrade ala the 3GS and 4S)

        But even the regular liquid metal back would be a nice improvement in durability, and presumably the iPhone 5 will use the next-generation Gorilla Glass 2 and lack the metallic band that makes landing on edge a problem for the 4/4S design.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why does it "need" to upgrade?

      The sales figures are through the roof, the company has one of the highest market cap's in the world and is making money hand over fist. Their customers are happy.

      Yet you say they need to upgrade it. Hmmm. I doubt they'll worry about your opinion.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Revolutionary?

    Like all Apple products today, it will definitely NOT be revolutionary.

    The iPod, iPhone and iPad are all Apple's take on an existing form factor / device.

    To be truly revolutionary one has to do more than take other people's hard work, put it in a shiny box and sell if for a high price.

    The first MP3 player, the first smartphone, the first tablet, they were revolutionary, Apple produce evolutionary products.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Revolutionary?

      Not sure, the iPod was rather a revolution. Playing songs from MP3 has been around for ages but their product was a huge step forward or it would never have dominated existing brands like Sony.

      The iPhone... dunno. I would contend the iPad is rather revolutionary. Saying tablets existed simply because someone managed to cram Windows into a box with no keyboard is rather limited IMHO.

      Revolution doesn't mean inventing something that never invented before. It means a BIG shift in how a solution is delivered, whereas evolutionary means a series of small steps. iPhone3->4 is evolutionary. Big heavy windows tablet -> iPad is revolutionary in my view.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Revolutionary?

        Big heavy windows tablet -> iPad is revolutionary in my view.

        Possibly.

        Alternatively:

        iPod Touch -> 10" iPod.. not quite so.

        (tongue firmly in cheek)

      2. Peter 48

        Re: Revolutionary?

        Don't forget, Android Tablets actually preceded the iPad by nearly 6 months. The Archos 5 came out in Sept 2009 for example.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Revolutionary?

        Didn't Archos and Creative have mp3 players out before the iPod ? In fact I remember working in Creative and playing around with mp3s on the desktop way back in the 90s and sending in suggestions that we create a walkman with a hd in it. I think they first came out with one about a year and a half after, don't know if it was anything to do with me as I had no feedback, bastids ;-) If I also remember right, Apple paid out something like 300 million to Creative for ripping off their interface.

  7. Giles Jones Gold badge

    These "possibly good product coming soon" articles are getting tiresome. Can't they at least wait for the Apple event to be scheduled before rumouring?

    1. thesykes

      No... "analysts" don't do real work, they just spout crap and charge lots of money for it.

      These people will charge companies huge sums for "analysis" work, and need to get their name out in the marketplace. Nothing better than spouting non-specific, ill-informed bullshit and tagging Apple and iPhone 5 in the title to guarantee some publicity.

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. M7S
    Terminator

    It might just be revolutionary in a way you don't want

    According to the DT its going to be made of "Liquid Metal"

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9216108/Apple-iPhone-5-to-be-cased-in-Liquidmetal.html

    People are going to be taking these into their homes! Willingly

    Please refer to icon. Time to dust off that old sandwich board sign, the end is indeed nigh.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It might just be revolutionary in a way you don't want

      But maybe they'll be like the Lady Terminator, able to grow bigger boobs at will

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It might just be revolutionary in a way you don't want

        Don't iPhones already have big tits attached to them?

  10. SiempreTuna

    Yaaaaawn ..

    'Scuse me!

    These no-information-so-lets-guess stories from the Apple-obsessives in the media are just so DULL!

    So why did I read it ..?

    Err ..

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorry..

    I remember reading 'iPhone' and 'revolutionary', then must've fallen asleep. Did I miss anything in the article?

    1. Ron Christian

      Re: Sorry..

      Nope. Just the usual stuff.

      Parenthetically, I'm not in the slightest bit interested. My current phone still works. That I wouldn't trade in a perfectly good phone for an incremental update makes me not a fanboi, I guess.

  12. Dropper
    FAIL

    Revolutionary?

    Will they be letting us buy our own SD cards or will they continue to laugh at people who pay them $200 extra for something you can get at Walmart for $10.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Careful! Looks like pump and dump

    How many times did I hear words like "revolutionary","never seen before"...etc. around Apple iPhones? A bit more realism would do good:

    The so-called "Smartphone" has long become a commodity, you can get multi functional phones at every corner from every Chinese, Taiwanese, and Indian company, and we have already a techbubble (again).

    Some analysts already talking up future releases to gullible tech journalists looks to me like the pump and dump years of the internet bubble.

    What will be next?! Hey, I've got an app that turns my HD pictures into brown blur, my company is therefore worth 2trn!!

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