Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Rumor – Low-Priced iPhone Plus iPhone 4S/5 Announcement By Summer’s End; Fact – Apple’s In Charge Of Smartphone Market Even Without New Model

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 09:48 PM PDT


BGR’s Jonathan S. Geller, who has a pretty strong track record in making Apple product predictions, says he’s just received new information from what he calls an “incredibly solid source,” who maintains that Apple will be not only be launching an upgraded standard iPhone (which he says could be called either 5 or 4S) by the end of the summer, but also a prepaid/lower cost iPhone model that will sell retail for no more than $350 without a service contract.

Geller says it’s entirely possible that the low-cost iPhone will in fact be the iPhone 3GS but that he’s been able to independently confirm that an iPhone revision under development will feature “a radical new design,” although his source isn't positive that it will be be the next mainline iPhone, but whether it's the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, a new iPhone model will be "at least announced by the end of Summer, late August-ish." (As we’ve noted here before, strictly speaking, “late Summer could actually take us all the way to the third week of September but Geller’s source apparently goes with the popular view that Summer ends on August 31 or at most Labor Day). However, he makes the observation that if a new iPhone form=factor was coming that soon, his sources theorize that we should’ve seen new 3rd-party iPhone cases designed to accommodate it by now by now if the upcoming iPhone featured a different exterior, notwithstanding an Apple crackdown on case specification leaks.

In summary, speculates that it could mean that there will be an iPhone 4S in addition to a prepaid iPhone 3GS available within the next month to two, and that he’s being told the current iPhone 4 will continue to be sold well, giving Apple a full range of devices in the low, mid, and high-end price categories, which he suggests will equip the iPhone-maker to “again take charge and lead in the smartphone market.”

Interesting.

Actually it appears that Apple has been doing a pretty good job of taking charge of and leading the smartphone market already. According to a new ChangeWave Research survey released on Monday, the Apple iOS remains the number one preference for smartphone buyers –with 46% of those planning to buy a new one in the next 90 days saying they prefer to have the Apple iOS on their new phone. That’s up two points from iPhone purchase intentions in ChangeWave’s March survey.

For this latest snapshot of buyer sentiment, ChangeWave surveyed 4,163 consumers, primarily in the North American smart phone market — the sample being 89% U.S. respondents and 11% outside the U.S. — taking fresh stock of smartphone demand trends – including mobile OS and smartphone preferences going forward.

ChangeWave Research Vice President of Research Paul Carton says that the June survey focused on key comparisons between the Apple iOS and Google Android OS – including the impact of Apple's forthcoming new iCloud service –along with the latest momentum trends for Motorola and Research in Motion, noting that despite no new Apple model launch, demand still appears strongest for the iPhone in terms of North American planned purchasing, with Android in second place but trailing considerably behind in the North American market, registering a slight uptick (to 32% up one point from March) in terms of future buyer preference. Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS stood at 4%; down a point and hitting hit its lowest level ever in a ChangeWave survey. Motorola was at 8% — down four points. ChangeWave attributes Motorola’s steep decline in market share at least in part to the Verizon iPhone release earlier this year.

However, the ChangeWave analysis deems Motorola's situation to be considerably less daunting than that of Research in Motion's, noting that seven of the past 10 ChangeWave quarterly surveys since 2008, they’ve tracked a drop in RIM's planned purchase share, and even more ominous — its customer satisfaction ratings have also fallen in nine of the past 10 ChangeWave surveys, with this latest survey showing RIM at their lowest level ever for this most critical of indicators.

For additional details on the ChangeWave survey results, click this link.