iPhone 5S to enter production in March, on sale in June

Posted on 14 Feb 2013 at 14:32, by David Ludlow

Anticipation of the iPhone 5S is reaching fever pitch and it may be that we have the phone soon, with rumours that the handset will go into production next month.

According to Business Insider, Jeffries analyst Peter Mistek has said that iPhone 5 sales are "decelerating faster than expected".

According to Jeffries, Apple has reduced its orders from 40 million to 30 million, with the knock on effect that there's less supply, so fewer sales. According to Jeffries, the reason behind this is that "suppliers seem to be prepping for iPhone 5S builds to start in March".

In other words, Apple is reducing its orders now, so that it can focus production on its new handset, while reducing the amount of stock it will have to try and shift of the iPhone 5. If the reduction in orders is down to the company getting ready to produce the iPhone 5S in March, then it follows that the phone will go on sale in June.

All this information ties in with another analyst's prediction that the iPhone 5S will look like the iPhone 5. Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley analysed Apple's SEC filing and noted a reduction in equipment purchases. She inferred from this that the reduction in cost, was because Apple was going to use the very similar components to the iPhone 5, requiring less of an investment than with a brand new phone.

So, it would seem as though this year we'll see the iPhone 5S, while we'll get something completely different with the iPhone 6 next year.