Apple makes it official: iPhone 5 launch Oct 4
The company gets uncharacteristically specific.
UPDATE SEPT 28: Apple confirmed an October 4 (October 5 NZ time) event will be centred around the iPhone - presumably the new model.
An invite sent to US media overnight states, "Let's talk iPhone."
There is no information on the specifics of the event beyond those three words.
But for Apple, which usually discloses little or nothing about the topic of a media launch, the invite is considered uncharacteristically loquacious.
SEPT 27: Apple will unveil the iPhone 5 at an October 4 (October 5 NZ time) event, according to a story on The Wall Street Journal's tech blog today.
A big media event has been scheduled for that day in Cupertino, California (the company's home base), hosted by new Apple CEO Tim Cook - but the company has kept mum on details.
The usually reliable AllThingsD quotes Wedge Partners analyst Bob Blair saying the October 4 event will definitely centre on the launch of a new iPhone - and new iPhone singular, not multiple models as hinted by board member Al Gore over the weekend.
That means - if Apple follows its usual staged rollout - the new iPhone should arrive in New Zealand around December.
That's the good news.
The bad is that Mr Blair is picking the iPhone 5 will look a lot like the iPhone 4, with only a few incremental improvements.
Dampening expectations
The wet blanket analyst told AllThingsD that the new iPhone 5 "will feature a faster A5 processor, a higher-resolution eight megapixel camera and possibly a larger screen. But beyond this, its design will be largely similar to that of the iPhone 4."
Mr Blair does not see a pumped up version of the existing model, dubbed the iPhone 4S, but rather a model with memory lowered to 8GB (currently, 16GB and 32GB models are offered) being used to attack the more price-conscious market.
Apple has repeatedly declined to comment on the iPhone 5's release date worldwide, or locally.
NBR staff
Wed, 28 Sep 2011
Wed, 28 Sep 2011
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Apple makes it official: iPhone 5 launch Oct 4
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