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"Rumors have it coming any time between late June and early 2012. Does it matter? Um, yes.\n\n\n  \nSource: Nowhere Else\nIn early spring the folks who obsess about Apple \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAAPL\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t are usually busy speculating about what features to expect in the next iteration of the iPhone &amp;#8212; a game neatly summarized in an infographic produced by the French site Nowhere Else, from which the image at right was taken.\nBut this year, reports that there will be no iPhone 5 announced at Apple&amp;#8217;s Worldwide Developers Conference in June has launched a whole new level of speculation, not about what Apple is building, but when it will arrive.\nIn notes issued to clients Tuesday, Susquehanna&amp;#8217;s Jeff Fidacaro said his checks &amp;#8220;confirm&amp;#8221; a delay until fall, Merrill Lynch&amp;#8217;s Scott Craig pronounced the delay &amp;#8220;not likely,&amp;#8221; and Ticonderoga&amp;#8217;s Brian White advised investors not to get &amp;#8220;hung up&amp;#8221; on the exact date. Any sales Apple misses in one quarter, White says, are likely to get picked up the next.\nPerhaps. But with a pack of Google \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGOOG\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Android phones breathing down its neck, Apple can&amp;#8217;t wait forever.\nWith that in mind, we&amp;#8217;ve put together an annotated timeline of the iPhone 5 launch rumors. See below the fold.\n\n\nFeb. 11, 14: Bloomberg Businessweek and the Wall Street Journal separately report that Apple is preparing two new iPhones: 1) a successor to the iPhone 4 and 2) a smaller, cheaper iPhone for release &amp;#8220;this summer.&amp;#8221; The reports are perfectly timed to disrupt the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which Apple did not attend. Credibility: medium.\nMarch 28: The Loop&amp;#8217;s Jim Dalrymple, a former Macworld news editor with good Apple sources, reports that the company has &amp;#8220;closed the door&amp;#8221; on any hardware announcements at the June 6 WWDC keynote, which is where new iPhones have been announced every year since 2007. Credibility: high.\nMarch 30: Two Wall Street analysts warn clients that summer may come and go without a new iPhone; Apple shares takes a hit. Dalrymple clarifies privately that his sources did not rule out an iPhone announcement in another venue besides WWDC. Credibility: medium.\nApril 4: A Korean website, ETNews.co.kr, claims that Apple has &amp;#8220;confirmed&amp;#8221; that the iPhone 5 will be released the fourth week of June, according to MacRumors. Dalrymple&amp;#8217;s sources shoot down the report as &amp;#8220;completely false.&amp;#8221; Credibility: low.\nApril 8: Ticonderoga&amp;#8217;s Brian White, reporting from the Far East, tells clients he is becoming increasingly suspicious of reports of a fall launch. He doesn&amp;#8217;t have a smoking gun, but says there is a &amp;#8220;pattern of activity in motion within the supply chain&amp;#8221; that makes him question the widely reported delay. Apple may be keeping its iPhone 5 cards &amp;#8220;extra close to the vest,&amp;#8221; he suggests, to avoid a fall-off of iPhone 4 sales as June approaches. Credibility: medium.\nApril 11: An unsigned report from Avian Securities, a Boston-based firm we&amp;#8217;re not familiar with, tells clients that that production for the iPhone 5 will begin in September &amp;#8212; consistent with a fall launch, although Avian doesn&amp;#8217;t say so. Instead, it changes the subject and reports that specs for the smaller iPhone that the Journal and Businessweek were writing about in February still haven&amp;#8217;t arrived, which suggests &amp;#8220;a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event.&amp;#8221; Several accounts of the Avian note conflate the two reports and suggest that the iPhone 5 might be pushed back to next year. Apple shares take another hit. Credibility: low.\n\nWe asked Jim Dalrymple &amp;#8212; who started this all &amp;#8212; where he would put his money. &amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s definitely not coming in June, so that&amp;#8217;s out,&amp;#8221; he says. &amp;#8220;I think we&amp;#8217;ll see it before the holiday shopping season.&amp;#8221;\nThat sounds like a good bet.\nAlso on Fortune.com:\n\nAbout that iPhone 5 delay\nAn exquisitely timed iPhone leak\nWhy a tiny iPhone could be a big deal\n\n[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2011/04/12/waiting-on-the-iphone-5/>