It looks like those rumors about a 4th of October announcement for the next iPhone may be true and now Apple has issued invitations to the media for a special iPhone event, which confirms the previous reports that it would be held at Apple’s Cupertino campus. The invite included iOS icons such as the Calendar, a Clock that’s set a 10am, a Map and a Phone and is accompanied by the tag line Let’s talk iPhone. As to whether it’ll be an iPhone 5, 4S or some other new formation, we’ll all have to wait until the event to find out……………
Apple confirmed that it will hosta news conference Oct. 4 to discuss its iPhone product line and Apple is expected to unveil its newest flagship model, together with some previously unannounced capabilities featured in iOS 5. “With every new version of iOS Apple has previewed most of the new features, but has reserved some hardware-specific features for the hardware announcement,” said Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy. “We expect [this to be the case] again this year — perhaps with more in-depth voice -recognition features,” Munster and Murphy added in an investor note released Tuesday. The invitation card released by Apple on Tuesday features four icons showing the date, time, location and phone-oriented subject of the event, followed by the key phrase “Let’s talk iPhone” at the bottom. With respect to prior Apple invitations, the card’s key phrase has typically served as a hint about the nature of Apple’s coming presentation. “We believe one of the unannounced features of iOS 5 may be voice-recognition technology leveraging Apple’s April 2010 acquisition of Siri, a voice-recognition app and service,” Munster and Murphy said. Piper Jaffray expects that Apple’s redesigned iPhone 5 will feature a larger screen and thinner form-factor. Though Apple‘s new flagship model is expected to be sold at carrier-subsidized prices in the $199 to $299 range, a refreshed iPhone 4 may also be introduced at a price as low as $99, the firm’s analysts said. Heightened consumer demand for iPhones among U.S. wireless subscribers who do not yet own one should help drive sequential unit shipment growth in the final three months of 2011. According to a recent Piper Jaffray survey, 74 percent of Verizon‘s customers as well as 53 percent of AT&T ‘s subscribers, who said they do not currently own an iPhone but plan to buy one, said they were specifically waiting for the iPhone 5. The uncertainty concerning Sprint is one of the reasons why Piper Jaffray’s current expectation of 25 million iPhone shipments in the fourth quarter may prove to be a conservative estimate. Among other things, Apple‘s rumored deal with Sprint, if correct, would give Apple fresh access to Sprint’s 33 million CDMA customers.
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