Apple Financials Reveal iPhone 4S/5 Will Be Released in June/July?

Analysis of Apple's quarterly guidance reportedly reveals that Apple will release the next iPhone in June/July rather than in September, according to SeekingAlpha's Andy Zaky.

During Apple's Q2 conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer stated, "We expect OpEx [operating expenses] to be about $2.5 billion, including about $255 million related to stock-based compensation expense."

Zaky says Oppenheimer might as well have said, "Despite what you might hear on Wall Street, we expect the iPhone 5 to be released in late June or early July as planned."


Arguments for June/July Release:
● Consensus seems to be that Apple will be releasing a minor "4S" update. Unless Apple is planning something revolutionary there is no need to delay the cycle.
● Apple is likely trying to throw reporters off due to the whole "prototype" debacle of last year. It's possible that Apple could hold separate events in June. One for iOS and one for iPhone.
● Rollout of an evolutionary iPhone 4S after the white iPhone 4 release would make sense. The White iPhone 4 would merely become the lower end version of iPhone 4 / iPhone 4S family of devices.
● Apple significantly increased its guidance for operating expenses this quarter. Over the past two quarters Apple offered OpEx guidance of $2.325 billion for fiscal Q1 and $2.350 billion for fiscal Q2. For Q3 Apple has significantly updated operating expenses guidance to $2.5 billion.

Zaky elaborates on the his last point which is the most important.

In what is generally considered one of Apple’s seasonally slowest quarters of the year, Apple’s management just offered the most aggressive OpEx guidance in the company’s history. Notice this huge increase in Q3 guidance is also more or less very consistent with the historical trend. We saw the exact same pattern take place in 2010. Apple offered the same exact guidance of $1.64 billion in fiscal Q1 and fiscal Q2 of 2010, and then increased its OpEx guidance by 11.6% to $1.83 billion for fiscal Q3 ahead of the iPhone 4 launch.

There are some other factors to consider such as the launch of Mac OS X Lion and the time needed for developers to update applications for a new iOS 5 release; however, Zaky does bring up some valid points.


Read More [via Antwon]