Verizon Weighs In [Again] On iPhone 5 Release Date

The second Verizon CEO in as many years has made a prediction about the iPhone 5 release date, taking a guess that it’ll be released “sometime in the

fourth quarter.” Are you impressed?

If one thing’s for sure, it’s that Verizon CEOs of late have a knack for injecting themselves into the iPhone 5 discussion, even if they have very little of

substance to say. You’ll recall that last year, then-Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams made news when in one breath he referred to the 2011 iPhone as

“iPhone 5? and then tried to argue that he “had no idea” of when it would be released. This year, Verizon’s new chief has taken the opposite approach to

making headlines: he’s predicting an iPhone release date range that the majority of the tech media has anticipated since last year: Q4 2012.

CNET reports:

“Apple’s next iteration of the iPhone could drop in the fourth quarter. That’s according to Verizon CFO Fran Shammo, who hinted at the possible timing

during the company’s quarterly conference call today with a vague reference to a major phone the carrier expects to launch in the fourth quarter. . . A

fourth-quarter launch suggests Apple may move in October, similar to its launch of the iPhone 4S last year.”

No duh.

Ever since the coming and going of the 2012 WWDC with no surprise iPhone 5 release, the safe bet has clearly been the fourth quarter of 2012,

considering that October would mark the one-year anniversary of the iPhone 4S’s announcement, Apple’s first foray into a fall iPhone launch, and the fact

that an October announcement and November release takes place within Apple’s fiscal first quarter, giving them strong earnings right out of the gate.

The only alternate theory for a Q4 release has been a few smatterings of August iPhone 5 announcements — however, considering the dearth of

production chatter for the new iPhone, that possibility seems all but impossible at this point.

So, what are we being told here that we don’t already know?

Nothing, most likely. Considering that Mr. Shammo’s comments came while addressing Verizon shareholders, his thinly-veiled hint at the iPhone 5 was

most likely an effort to assuage them, and perhaps encourage a bit of buying in order to further capitalize Verizon ahead of the new iPhone’s launch.

Perhaps a more interesting mobile network-related thread in the iPhone 5 rumor mill is whether or not T-Mobile will finally add the iPhone to its inventory

this year. However, the reason that we’ve heard little about that prospect is that all indications are that T-Mobile won’t gain the iPhone until 2013, when

we begin using the “iPhone 6” moniker to talk about a future iPhone iteration.

From Motoring Crunch:

“T-Mobile USA Inc,, the 4th largest network in the US, may use its parent company’s (Deutsche Telekom AG) sales agreement with Apple to bring to

iPhone to the US in 2013, according to Sanford C Bernstein’s Craig Moffett. Deutsche Telekom and Apple are “increasingly likely” to reach agreement for

T-Mobile to sell iPhones in the US in 2013. New York-based analyst Moffatt claims in a recent research note.”

So there you have it. It would appear that, unlike 2011, when speculation of Sprint getting the iPhone contributed consistently to iPhone speculation, we

appear to have much less to focus on this year as far as the mobile networks are concerned.