iPhone 5S production begins in March – Release Date June/July

Rumors revolving the timeframe of Apple’s preliminary start up of iPhone 5S builds have been continuously spreading, and they had us all thinking about an actual date when rumors become reality. So now we have a fresh report stating that March is going to be the real date when Apple begins the preliminary builds of the most new iPhone model – iPhone 5S. That would mean that they would actually start a few months in advance to the initially speculated time frame, which was expected to revolve around the months of June or July. So good news is here.

So now let’s actually look into some facts and statements. Peter Misek, analyst for Jefferies, has been reportedly involved in a few meetings with investors?appreciatively?a week ago and during these meetings he has apparently stated to them that testings were performed on at least two upcoming iPhone prototypes. So now the question revolves around the type of devices he was mentioning, and to make it a little more clear, while one of the prototypes in question could be the actual Apple low-cost iPhone that has triggered so much interest and rumor, the other one is supposedly the future iPhone 5S. Or so we’ve heard at least.

Do you remember Peter Misek’s predictions back in December? He and his financial group were then predicting that June would be the deadline for Apple’s launching of its next iPhone and also iPad, and the fall of 2013 was also designated as the timeframe for their release of a television set as well. Back then, Misek’s credible industry sources have had him be informed that June or July were the two summer months in which Apple would most likely?advertise?their launching of the so-called iPhone 5S at that time. And Misek also gave us an insightful description regarding the new features that the so-called iPhone 5S would be equipped with, and the new iPhone would therefore be expected to have a “a new super HD?camera/screen, a better battery, and NFC”, says analyst Peter Misek. However, when it comes to additional updates from the iPhone 5’s successor, Misek did not highlight the updates that much, and is not that confident about a few features either, including:?an IGZO screen from Sharp for what he called a “Retina+” display,” as well as 128 gigabytes of storage, and as many as six new color options in addition to the current black and white offerings. We have to wait and see for ourselves.

So the reports that Misek gave in December were that the major overhaul and upgrade to the iPhone 5 would be reality in the summer of 2013, and he mentions?a larger 4.8-inch display as one of the many main upgrades previously mentioned.

What would the release of a so called iPhone 5S bring to the table however, besides rumors turned into reality? Well, for instance and perhaps also most importantly, analysts (including Misek himself) state that this would be translated into less demand for the current iPhone 5, or at least a slightly downgrading path in this sense. If we want to get an even more close perspective by looking into numbers, Misek mentions that 44 million iPhones in the current March quarter is what he expects Apple to actually sell, but he also mentions that he catalogues this 44 million number as being far above some recent concerns. These recent concerns he mentions would actually revolve around a figure of mid 30 millions.

But Misek is not the only one who is of the opinion that Apple’s alleged drop-down in the component orders for the iPhone 5 has no correlation with the reduced demand for this handset. And what a noticeable reduced demand it is. Ok, so if there is no connection between these two facts, what could justify such a considerably reduced demand? Well we will present you with the three factors Misek claims the order reduction is based on, and so we have the following. ?First of all, we have an “assembly bottleneck” that he believes has caused a rise of component inventories during the holiday months. Then, the second factor he highlights is the actual planning involved in the preliminary production of the next iPhone in March. The third factor he believes to have something to do with this is that the demand is basically either?aligned, or “slightly below expectations”.

So now that he has actually indicated March for the launch of Apple’s next iPhone device, and has shortened the initially expected timeframe of?June or July he had mentioned back in December, he also talks about the so-rumored low-cost iPhone. This is the other iPhone Apple is rumored to be working on, which has as final destination – selling market nothing else but emerging markets. We have China as example. Misek believes that this low-cost iPhone could actually have been finalized and greenlit for that case.

But what would we be expecting from this low-cost iPhone? Well the situation would not be that different than that of the iPad mini. Most likely we would be witnessing a concentration of features (or a reduction, let’s say), and not necessarily a cheap version, so he is expecting the low cost device to be under a?poly-carbonate?case, equipped with?4″ non-Retina display and no LTE. Which is indeed less than what we would normaly expect from our iPhones.

All in all, we can look at the low-cost iPhone from two different perspectives and angles. First of all, the lower price of this iPhone would most definitely have an impact in what concerns the increasing and development of Apple’s market share on the smartphone stage. This is unquestionably true. However, on the other hand, the release of a device of this type would also signify a notable decrease in the company’s gross margin. This is unquestionable as well.?Analyzing?both sides of the problem, and as a final conclusion to the story, Peter Misek claims that he does not actually expect that the low-cost iPhone shall impact the company’s earnings per share.

Now that we have clarified some aspects regarding the potential launch of both these 2 iPhones, I for one can strongly state that no matter what the reality is – I am anyhow looking forward to seeing the products on the market. Let’s just hope that March is the deadline.