iPhone 5 Will Be Launch Mid-September

Apple is reportedly prepping for a launch of the iPhone 5 sometime between September 6 and 15. According to China Times (translated via MacRumors ), suppliers are currently preparing 400,000 trial run iPhone 5 units, with an initial shipment slated at 4 million units. As the iPhone 5 features guessing game picks up steam, Apple has not formally announced anything.

Rumors began to swirl this past June at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference when Apple's lack of iPhone 5 news suggested to some it was prepping for an iPhone announcement later in the year, likely in September. For the past three years Apple has held a media event in September, where it has introduced products in the iPod line, but this year the company is expected to launch the long-awaited iPhone 5 and a final version of iOS 5 at the same time too. iOS 5 is currently advertised on Apple's website as "coming this fall".

The Chinese publication also reports that the iPad 3, a widely rumored upgrade to the iPad 2 with a high-resolution display, is actually delayed until Thanksgiving due to component shortages. A recent report from Taiwan's Economic Daily claims the next-gen iPad display resolution will be five to six times higher than that of the iPad 2. However, some are skeptic that Apple will make the iPad 2, still a best seller, obsolete after nine months of availability.

The iPhone however, is due for a refresh, as the iPhone 4 was launched more than one year ago. Conflicting rumors over the past few months are split between an incremental upgrade to the iPhone 4, with an A5 dual-core chip (as found on the iPad 2), and a camera boost, or a rather more radical refreshed iPhone 5, as suggested by alleged cases for the upcoming device.

Apple's record day

Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world, but it's growing like it's a startup.

The consumer electronics giant set record after record on Tuesday, hitting all-time highs with its quarterly profit and revenue, its stock price, and with iPhone and iPad sales.

The most surprising milestone Apple reached was the quarterly sales record for the iPhone, which many analysts believed would have a tough quarter.

Apple sold 20.3 million iPhones in its fiscal third quarter. On a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said the iPhone's strong quarter can be attributed primarily to robust sales growth in emerging markets like China, Latin America, Brazil, and the Middle East.

For the first time since the smartphone's 2007 debut, Apple did not release a new iPhone in June. Wall Street experts widely believed that consumers would hold off on purchasing iPhones until the company unveiled a new version, which most expect it to do in September.

Apple didn't comment on when that new iPhone would be released, but Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, spoke Tuesday about a somewhat mysterious "future product transition" that will take place during the current quarter.

The company also sold a record 9.25 million iPads in the quarter, as Apple finally found a way to bring supply more in line with demand. Expected shipping dates fell this week to within one to three days after an order is placed. The new version of the popular tablet, which went on sale in March, had at one point been shipping as much as five to six weeks after sales.

One weak spot in Apple's strong quarter was the 7.5 million iPods that the company sold, which is about 20% lower than its iPod sales last year. Last quarter marked the first time Apple's tablet has outsold its iconic MP3 player.

Some analysts were skeptical about how Apple stacked up compared to its chief competitor.

Apple sold 33 million iOS devices in quarter, including the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, which works out to about 367,000 devices per day. But Apple's chief iPhone and iPad rival, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), impressed Wall Street last week when it said its Android operating system is activating 550,000 devices each day -- about 50% more than Apple.

As in the past, Apple executives hinted to analysts that Google may be artificially inflating its device activations figures -- an accusation that Google has previously denied.

"The Android activation number is a difficult one to get hands around," said Cook. "Our numbers are open, and transparent."

Apple said it sold just under 4 million Macintosh computers during the quarter. Cook said that the iPad cannibalized Macs to some degree, but it was eating into Windows PC sales to a significantly higher degree.

That was confirmed by a recent Gartner report, which said U.S. PC sales fell by nearly 6% last quarter. Yet sales of Macs grew 8.5% over the past three months, making Apple the country's third-largest PC seller.

Apple frequently touts its so-called "halo effect," in which satisfied buyers of less expensive Apple items like iPods, iPhones and iPads buy the more expensive Macs for their next PC purchases.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Apple's chief PC rival, is expected to report earnings on Thursday.

By the numbers

Apple more than doubled its net income during its fiscal third quarter, which ended June 30, to $7.3 billion, or $7.79 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of $5.85 per share.

Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) stock price rose 5% after hours, at one point soaring above $400 for the first time. The company's shares had closed at a record high of $376.85 on Tuesday.

Sales for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company rose 82% to $28.6 billion, topping analysts' forecasts of $25 billion.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said he expects the company to produce sales of $25 billion and earnings per share of about $5.50 during the current quarter. As always, Apple's ultra-conservative outlook should be taken with a grain of salt. For instance, Apple beat its own fiscal third-quarter sales forecast by 24% and its profit forecast by 54%.

Analysts expect sales of $27 billion and earnings of $6.45 per share in its fiscal fourth quarter

Apple might be readying Mini iPhone

We are all looking forward to Apple’s next generation iPhone ie the iPhone 5. But now it seems that Apple is more busy preparing a Mini iPhone.

We’ve heard of such rumours ever since the launch of the iPhone 2G when people said Apple will announce a smaller device like they did for the iPod line.

This time though it seems Apple is really thinking of producing a smaller and cheaper variant of their popular iPhone to combat Google which seems to be slowly making it’s way on to devices of all price ranges.

A source has reportedly seen a prototype version of the mini iPhone firsthand. The phone is said to be around two thirds the size of the iPhone 4 and lacks a Home button.

The phone is planned to be launched in mid 2011 and it’s information is only shared among a few Apple employees. The price is said to be 200 US$ without the obligation to sign a 2 year contract.

The device will be cheaper as it will be using nearly the same components as the iPhone 4 rather than the new components of the iPhone 4 successor.

The source also said that though Apple is currently planning to launch it in mid 2011, it might even be delayed or cancelled finally since Apple often works on products that don’t get released.

Windows Phone to surpass Apple's iOS by 2015

Energized by the recent deal between Microsoft and Nokia, Windows Phone will grab the No. 2 spot ahead of Apple's iOS in the global smartphone market by 2015, according to IDC's latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

Releasing some slight revisions from a report issued in March, IDC expects Windows Phone to capture 20.3 percent of all smartphone users in just four years, up from a 3.8 percent share this year.

The research firm believes that by switching to Windows Phone as the core OS on its devices, Nokia will provide the kick that Microsoft needs, especially in global regions where Nokia has enjoyed robust demand. Microsoft's mobile OS will continue to hang onto a small chunk of the market until 2012 when IDC expects Windows Phone-equipped Nokia devices to start shipping in large numbers.

Google's Android will keep its top spot in 2015, grabbing almost 44 percent of the global market, while Apple's iOS will hug third place with a 16.9 percent share. Both numbers are slightly lower than IDC's earlier forecasts in March. Though IOS's market share is expected to inch down from its current 18.2 percent, Apple will still see a dramatic increase in smartphone shipment growth through the end of 2015.

In second place this year, Symbian will quickly lose market share as Nokia phases it out in favor of Windows Phone. By 2015, IDC sees Symbian's market share as virtually nil.



With lower prices, better features, and less costly data plans, the global smartphone market should grow more than four times that of the overall mobile phone market this year, according to IDC.

The research firm sees the smartphone market jumping 55 percent this year as more consumers swap out their feature phones for more advanced devices. This year's smartphones shipments are expected to hit 472 million, up from 305 million last year, and then double to 982 million by the end of 2015.

"Mobile phone users around the world are turning in their 'talk-and-text' devices for smartphones as these devices allow users to perform daily tasks like shopping and banking from anywhere," IDC analyst Kevin Restivo said in a statement. "The growth trend is particularly pronounced in emerging markets where adoption is still in its early days. As a result, the growth in regions such as Asia/Pacific and Latin America, will be dramatic over the coming years."

iOS 5 beta jailbroken in less than 24 hours

The next major version of Apple's iOS has been exploited less than a day after its beta release to developers.

A member of the iPhone Dev Team--a group of hackers that targets Apple devices and is not to be confused with Apple's group that designs the iOS software--announced through a tweet last night that the developer beta release of iOS 5 was susceptible to limera1n, an exploit that targets a vulnerability in the iOS boot software.



As a result, iPhone Dev Team member "MuscleNerd" said that it was possible to install third-party application installer Cydia, which lets users download applications not offered through Apple's App Store. The device used was a fourth-generation iPod Touch running the beta of iOS 5, software Apple offered up to developers following yesterday's WWDC keynote address and iOS 5 unveiling.

For proof, MuscleNerd has posted two photos of the jailbreak, one of which includes the iPod's home screen, which prominently feature the Cydia logo. Another is a screenshot from the third-party SSH iOS application, iSSH, which shows that root level access to the iPod's file system has been obtained.

As ReadWriteWeb notes, the jailbreak technique that was used results in a tethered solution, meaning users are required to go through the process each time their phone reboots. The more advanced solution--and what has been offered for previous versions of iOS--is untethered, which sticks around until the next software update from Apple is manually applied.
That Apple's brand new iOS build would be jailbroken so soon should not be too surprising. The gold master version of iOS 4, which was the same version of the software to ship on the iPhone 4, as well as to be delivered to customers as an update, was jailbroken a day after its release to developers.

Apple has said it intends to release a final version of iOS 5 to customers this fall. In the meantime, it's offering registered iOS developers a crack at testing out the software and working on making sure apps are compatible with its new features and APIs. When readying iOS 4 for customers, it took Apple four separate beta builds for developers before reaching golden master status and a final release. During that time, numerous changes are made, including bug and security fixes, giving Apple time to fix vulnerabilities ahead of a public release