iPhone 5 delayed till 2012 but iPhone 4S to be released soon

Gene Munster, is the managing director of internet research department, analyzing news from major internet companies such as Amazon, Apple,eBay, Google, Microsoft and many others. As such he’s research reports are amongst the most respected and credible in the industry. Munster claims the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S will be release later this year, around November or early 2012.

In the report, Munster noted 2 main factors to why he believes the iPhone 5 will be officially released in early 2012 but Apple should release details on the new generation iPhone in September to November and possibility releasing the iPhone 4S.

With the delay of certain components such as the Sony camera, where the CEO of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer, famously leaked out reports that the new generation iPhone 5 would be using Sony camera lens. Due to the earthquake and nuclear issues in Japan, Sony production facilities have just resumed production. As there had been a 2.5 month lag this would have delayed the release of the iPhone 5.

Other equipment suppliers have mentioned that orders for the iPhone 5 has been several months later than the previous generations, which suggests Apple has only recently finalized the designs and planning for the new generation iPhone.

From previous trends, Apple usually would organize a software event in the spring, followed by a hardware announcement in the summer developers conference. Munster said, “There have been, on average, 79 days between the software event and the iPhone hardware announcement.”   This has not been the case in this year’s conferences.

Other competitors, such as Samsung and HTC have been releasing new generation smartphone’s which hardware specs have surpassed the iPhone 4. As investors and iPhone fanatics are hoping for the new generation iphone to be revolutionary, BMO captial’s, Keith Bachman only believes Apple would release a slightly improved version of the current iphone 4 dubbed ‘iphone 4S’, before actually releasing the new iPhone 5 next year. Bachman believes due to the poor battery performance for LTE , it is a major factor to why the iPhone 5 would be released next year.

Bachman suggests the iPhone 4S would include slight improvements to iphone 4, such as better camera functionality, different design/casing but would not have 4G technology, LTE or a wireless modem.

Peter Misek, a technology analyst for Jefferies & Co, mentioned there was a high probability a minor improved version of the iphone 4, would be introduced before the actual iphone 5. It would be using the new A5 processor which is currently being used on the iPad 2.

Misek, mentioned Apple’s trials to include for the LTE technology ‘did not yield sufficient results to be included in the iPhone 5’, thus Apple had been planning a version without LTE to be released first in order to fight competition from Samsung and HTC.

As the iphone craze keeps reaching new heights , suggestions from these three analysts have confirmed there would be an improved version of the current iphone after all, which would certainly please many fans. Although, demand for the iphone 4 doesn’t look like it would run out of steam, helped by the release of the White version, It is also in Apple’s best interest to introduce a newer and improved version to compete against phones such as the HTC desire HD and Samsung Galaxy 2.