Rumor: iPhone 5 Pre-orders Begin September 12
Apple will probably start taking pre-orders for its new gadgets when they're supposedly announced on September 12.
The latest iPhone 5 rumor is that Apple will open the doors to pre-orders on September 12, the same day the company will reportedly reveal the new smartphone, new iPod products and the rumored 7-inch iPad Mini. The phone is supposedly slated for a September 21 release locally, and on October 5 in markets outside the United States.
Sources claim that Apple is being a bit more aggressive this year with the launch of its new products. Last year Apple introduced the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011 and then opened up shop for pre-orders the following Friday, October 7. The first wave of iPhone 4S releases landed on store shelves on October 14, 2011, here in the United States, and the second wave arrived on October 28, 2011.
It's possible Apple is getting aggressive with the iPhone 5 launch because sales have slumped somewhat as customers are seemingly holding out on upgrading or getting a new phone until the iPhone 5 finally arrives. Apple may also be anxious to squash the competition in the 7-inch tablet sector, as currently Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire are duking it out for the top spot. Amazon is even slated to refresh its Kindle line soon, offering a revamped Kindle Fire while introducing a second-generation tablet.
There's also a good chance that Apple will have two main launch dates per year from here on out: April for its 10-inch tablets or other large devices, and September for its smartphone-sized gadgets like the iPad Mini and the iPhone. Previously April was reserved for its iPad launch, June for its new iPhones and September for its iPod product refresh, but Apple changed all that last year with the release of its iPhone 4S in the fall.
Last week brought reports that Apple plans to implement its new, smaller Dock connector across all iOS devices launching this fall -- including a modified version of the current 9.7-inch iPad 3. Apple has reportedly ditched the 30-pin connector it's used for years and is going with a 19-pin version -- possibly even 8 or 9 pins, depending on what rumor you believe. The reduced width will give Apple more breathing room within the new gadgets for extra features like a larger screen.
Naturally everything mentioned here is mere rumor and speculation. Apple hasn't announced anything official, but it's not out of the question that Apple could have "accidentally released" a few nuggests of info in order to keep the iPhone 5 embers burning. It's definitely common practice in advertizing, and Apple certainly isn't immune to hype.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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clubsaucekiller Really excited for this one. Android manufacturers will be playing catchup for another year.Reply -
HEY CLUB...ARE YOU SERIOUS? APPLE IS THE ONE STILL 2 YEARS BEHIND WITH THE PHONE THEY HAVEN'T EVEN RELEASED YET! LOLReply
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friskiest Apple will still sell these in the thousands if not millions,. there's just so much of the herd in this world.Reply
Anyway,. I'm more interested in the future of Windows Phone OS,.. and how it'll fare now that I'll support multi-core processors. -
Kami3k clubsaucekillerReally excited for this fail. Android manufacturers will have another year of a head start.Reply
Fixed. -
dthx clubsaucekillerReally excited for this one. Android manufacturers will be playing catchup for another year.Troll spotted ;-)Reply -
wardoc22 friskiestApple will still sell these in the thousands if not millions,. there's just so much of the herd in this world.Anyway,. I'm more interested in the future of Windows Phone OS,.. and how it'll fare now that I'll support multi-core processors.Reply
I'm waiting on windows phone 8 :/
I'll stick with my lumia 710 until the middle of next year, then upgrade to windows phone 8 if I see it all goes well. :) -
Cons29 i thought apple said 7 inch is too small for a tablet? and 3.5 inch is enough for a phone?Reply -
mattperkins Every single year Android fan boys say that the next iPhone will fail and every single year the new iPhone outsells the top selling Android phone by a large margin. Android fan boys last year said the Galaxy SII would outsell the iPhone 4s and guess what? The iPhone 4s sold as many units in 2 days as the Galaxy SII did in 4 months. But let Android fan boys think every year is the year the top selling Android phone will outsell the new iPhone because every year they end up wrong. iPhone has always been the top selling individual smartphone and there are no signs to show this year will be any different.Reply -
house70 mattperkinsEvery single year Android fan boys say that the next iPhone will fail and every single year the new iPhone outsells the top selling Android phone by a large margin. Android fan boys last year said the Galaxy SII would outsell the iPhone 4s and guess what? The iPhone 4s sold as many units in 2 days as the Galaxy SII did in 4 months. But let Android fan boys think every year is the year the top selling Android phone will outsell the new iPhone because every year they end up wrong. iPhone has always been the top selling individual smartphone and there are no signs to show this year will be any different.The ONLY thing that works for Apple here is the fact that the iPhone is the ONLY iOS phone out there. Meanwhile, there are plenty of Android phones to choose from, and Android outsells iOS by a large margin.Reply
To translate that for ya, if there was ONLY one Android handset manufacturer in the world, that would still outsell the iOS manufacturer, plainly because Android is a more versatile OS. It's that simple.
People that keep comparing these things keep forgetting that the OS and handset manufacturers are 2 different categories; it only happens that for Apple they are the same thing, because that is what Apple wants - namely, no choice in terms of hardware. Rest assured, there are people out there that are not fond of the glass-made brick-shaped slab that Apple puts out for a phone, but they have no other option if they are already invested in the iOS app environment. Same goes for the rest of Apple hardware, and that why you can find people that make their own hackintosh PCs. If they had a legalized option to do that, plenty would choose different hardware manufacturers to install OSX.
I, for one, prefer to have multiple options to choose from instead of a single handset version. -
As an Apple die hard, I have to say that my interest in this phone is minimal. iOS6 looks more like an incremental release than a major release (much like how the last 4 versions of Mac OS have been), and this looks to be nothing more than a stretched iPhone 4 with faster hardware. LTE is about the only compelling reason to upgrade, so I'll likely be waiting another year. No big deal, as the iPhone 4 is still a more than capable device and will support most features of the "new" OS anyway.Reply
That said, it will still be far better than any of the Android phones, and this will be the new benchmark (or template, if you are Samsung) for smart phones to aspire to (or copy) when it is launched. I still wish Apple would try a little harder, not that they really have to.