“In the past 24 hours, the intertubes have been abuzz even more than possible over the idea that ‘the’ ‘iPhone 5’ (note: might be more than one; might not be called iPhone 5) will be delayed until October,” Charles Arthur reports for The Guardian. “This has come from no less authoritative a source than John Paczkowski at AllThingsD, the spinoff stand-alone weblog from the Wall Street Journal, and so meant to be an authoritative source.”
“Well, maybe. It’s absolutely possible that Paczkowski has nailed this, and that the iPhone(s) will not land until October,” Arthur reports. “However, I’d point out that by my understanding, ATD doesn’t have to pass the same tough tests that articles in the WSJ do, where even ‘anonymous’ sources have to be named to senior editors and in effect vetted for independence. (The WSJ is very, very hot on not getting things wrong; the motto inside the building is that it’s better to be late and correct than early and wrong.)”
Arthur reports, “My carrier sources tell me that the boxes in which the new iPhone hardware is encased have been transported to carriers for testing. This is an important step in the release cycle for any phone… The next iPhones go for their testing inside locked and sealed boxes so that the carriers can carry out checks on their network compatibility in their labs. It’s very high security, as you could guess; my understanding is that barely anyone inside the carriers gets to open those boxes, and even when they do the hardware is encased in a dummy body which means there’s no clue to what the actual phone will do.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: MacRumors. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan King” for the heads up.]
Enclosed in a plastic shell to look just like a Blackberry Storm. Nobody will want to nick it.
Wouldn’t it be infinitely easier to create a micro-cell site in Apple’s campus and test the iPhone inside Apple’s labs?
So much easier. I agree
Of course. And that’s where all the early testing is done. But then the phones must go to the Telcos for testing because those Telco tests will be used to make the FCC application.
Look at this from an AT&T/Verizon point of view, before they let a million of anything on their network they need to test it to make sure: 1) it doesn’t break anything 2) the company is aware of any possible support issues in advance,
The WSJ is hot on getting things right ? Your kidding right? They’re part of Faux news, so we’re lucky they get anything right
Good one.
You don’t know how truly lucky you are.
After thinking about this, I conclude that if Apple is keeping the iPod Touch as a distinctly different product than the iPhone that the iPT and other iPods will be announced in mid September by themselves and the iPhone will be announced 2 to 3 weeks before or after the iPod event.
If however, the iPod Touch and iPhone are going to be in the same presentation then I am thinking that along with iPhone 5, GS etc that Apple will introduce a hybrid prepaid phone that has iPod Touch specs and a cellular chip, so less expensive than the full new iPhone and more expensive than the iPod Touch.
I personally think that Apple would sell a ton of the prepaid phones in the. US and around the world.
The new full featured iPhone would be available for those who need to be always connected and everyone is happy.
I know many people assume that the prepaid market is tiny and inconsequential.
I say au contraire!
The price of the phone really doesn’t mean that much; the monthly telco fees are pretty much all the same regardless if it’s a less expensive smart phone or a expensive smart phone.
“…and even when they do the hardware is encased in a dummy body which means there’s no clue to what the actual phone will do.”
This makes absolutely no sense at all. What’s the point of sending them out for testing if a casing prohibits any meaningful results.
Yeah, that’s the kind of testing that leads to antennagate. The ‘actual’ design has to be tested in the real world.