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Will Lack of New iPhone Cause Trouble for New Carrier Contracts?

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No one really expected new iPhones to be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this week, but we are not wrong in saying that there will be a new iPhone… sometime. Some of our latest rumors have the launch pegged for a September release (which is typically when Apple does their fall iPad/iPod events). The iPhone 5S, if that is what it is called, will most likely be an incremental update to the current iPhone 5. While some have hoped for a radical change in the hardware, Apple and company have been so hard at work on iOS 7 that there probably is few resources available develop a radically new phone. Could Apple not releasing a new iPhone now eventually hurt iPhone sales in the future?

For people on Verizon Wireless who purchased the iPhone 4S on launch day, their early upgrade will be available on June 14th, 2013. If no new iPhone is available until September, that leaves several months where a customer could upgrade his or her phone and sign a new two-year agreement. If they are antsy to replace their phone, they will be greeted by an iPhone that is soon to be replaced, or a litany of Android phones.

iPhone 5S

If that customer were to switch to an Android device, then Apple may lose that customer for the duration of time that that customer is with Verizon. Under new Verizon contract rules, there is no early upgrade option available. In 24 months from now, it will be June once again, and a new iPhone will still be off in the distance. There will conceivably be another large quantity of Android phones to choose from.

On the flip side, if a customer signs a new two year agreement on iPhone 5S launch day, Apple will have the contract working in their favor. Their contracts will expire right when a new iPhone launches, maximizing the time the customer has the newest iPhone.

Will people eligible to upgrade, but without a new enough iPhone on the horizon, cause people to go Android? Time will most certainly tell.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Pete

    06/14/2013 at 12:33 pm

    Chad, you are bang on. Price points is not the only issue here, timing is even more crucial. I NEED a new good phone NOW… by that I mean the latest iPhone. If Apple announces at the beginning of the year that there will be a new phone in september, I WILL wait till that time, no questions about it.

    However if there is no announcements soon, because my phone is so old and crappy, I may just get the next best thing which is plasticky but well ladened with great features and loved by millions. Go figure.

    • Violetta

      06/14/2013 at 10:11 pm

      I feel the same way. I’m really in need to upgrade, & have been due since March, but still with no announcements by Apple for a new phone may push me to have to buy another phone as well :/

  2. frank bliss

    06/16/2013 at 6:07 pm

    arrrrg. i do not want to go back to an android phone. but battery life on my iPhone 4s is getting noticeably shorter, and i don’t want to get an iPhone 5 and have a 5s (or whatever) emerge just a few months later. i’m off sequence on this up-grade timing.

    • Pete

      06/17/2013 at 1:55 am

      Yes, I will tough it out.(As I have been doing for a few months now) So a fall release is the last chance that they get from me. My interim solution is to get a shameful ten bucks phone as a sort of backup and use only in front of family.(The kind ones!)

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