Report: Apple is building two (!) iPhones for September release
An analyst expects Apple to launch both an iPhone 5 and a mid-range iPhone 4S — Click to enlarge. Source: Deutsche Bank — For much of the spring, the reporters who cover Apple (AAPL) have been arguing among themselves …
Context & Ripple Effects
For four years Apple has shipped essentially one flagship iPhone per cycle, and analysts have repeatedly probed when it would broaden the lineup — earlier rounds of that speculation included reports on a second-generation iPhone nearing final phase back in December 2007 and an analyst call for a higher-capacity iPhone in March 2009. Deutsche Bank's new note pushes that argument further: rather than a bigger storage tier, the bank expects Apple to split by price point, pairing a next-gen iPhone 5 with a cheaper mid-range iPhone 4S, both targeted for September.
The claim remains an analyst expectation, not a confirmed Apple plan, but the pickup beyond Fortune — including TechCrunch's 'A Tale of Two iPhones' framing — shows the market treating portfolio breadth as the live question. It lands alongside other unresolved supply questions in the same window, among them an unconfirmed report that Apple plans to move its ARM chip production away from Samsung in 2012.
First-order effects
- If Deutsche Bank's September timeline holds, Apple would break its one-flagship-per-cycle pattern and sell into a lower price band with the mid-range iPhone 4S for the first time.
- Carriers and resellers planning holiday inventory would need to forecast two distinct iPhone tiers instead of one, changing their stocking and subsidy math ahead of the fall quarter.
Second-order effects
- Android handset makers competing in the mid-range segment would face a subsidized iOS alternative at their price points, pressuring the value-tier positioning several vendors rely on.
- Apple's component suppliers would need capacity for two simultaneous iPhone builds, sharpening the logistics questions around sourcing — including the unconfirmed talk of shifting ARM production away from Samsung.
Third-order effects
- If the two-SKU structure sticks, annual iPhone launches evolve from a single halo product into a tiered lineup spanning premium and mid-range, a structure analysts have been asking Apple to adopt since the device launched four years ago.
- A broader portfolio would also deepen Apple's dependence on contract manufacturing and fab allocation, making supplier relationships like the reportedly tenuous Samsung one more strategically consequential.
The trend: Premium smartphones are giving way to tiered annual lineups, and the pressure on Apple to field a mid-range iPhone marks the point where that segmentation logic reaches even the most deliberately single-product franchise.