iReturn Soon

The new, highly sought after iPhone 5 is planned to be unveiled October 4, 2011 at a special event. The next question after the unveiling will inevitably be 'When can I buy the new iPhone?' In an attempt to answer this question, John Paczkowski of All Things Digital (a department of the Wall Street Journal),  analyzed the lag times of previous Apple products. The following was discovered:

As can be seen on the chart to the left, the original iPhone took 171 days to become available from the time it was unveiled. That time frame was reduced with the iPhone 3G which took 32 days, and the iPhone 3GS with 11 days. The iPhone 4, however took longer than the 3GS with 17 days from unveiling to release. Analyzing these figures was important for Mr. Paczkowski to estimate the availability of the iPhone 5 from the release date of Oct 4.

Paczkowski estimated that based on the trends from the chart that the iPhone 5 will be available in the month of October. He estimates roughly 2-3 weeks after the special event that wireless phone providers such as Verizon and AT&T will have the product on their shelves ready for purchase. Another factor that Paczkowski utilized was the fact that Apple will be now selling the iPhone 5 through 228 carriers world wide, including the Republic of China. With this many potential buyers, Paczkowski believes Apple will be more likely to reduce the lag time between the unveiling and the sales periods.

This is important again once to me as a potential iPhone 5 buyer but also to corporations. The corporations are beginning to reanalyze the use of smartphones in the industry. Many companies are switching from RIM's Blackberry to Android and iPhones. I have seen also many potential clients in the entertainment industry, as my uncle sets up events for high profile clients of his hotel company. With the release of the iPhone 5 the market share will probably shift and Apple stocks will rise.