Chinese Vendors Already Taking Orders for ‘iPhone 5’ as New Physical Mockup Photos Surface
Reuters reports on the growing number of Chinese vendors that have already begun taking orders for the “iPhone 5”, despite the fact that Apple has made no announcement about the next-generation iPhone's specs or availability.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second consecutive summer the 'iPhone 5' has been sold before it exists. In July 2011, DigiTimes reported Pegatron had received orders for 15 million iPhone 5s from Apple while touch panel makers said Apple had released no production roadmap; by September 2011, 'iPhone 5' silicone sleeves were already arriving at AT&T retail stores. A year later, with Apple still silent on specs or availability, Reuters finds Chinese vendors have moved one step further — from stocking accessories to taking actual customer orders against a device Apple has never announced.
The pickup is unusually broad: CNET, Engadget, GigaOM, Business Insider, BGR, 9to5Mac and Computerworld all ran the Reuters report within days, making the shadow pre-order market itself the story rather than any leaked spec.
First-order effects
- Chinese vendors are collecting deposits and orders for hardware whose dimensions, name, and ship date remain unconfirmed, transferring spec risk directly onto early buyers.
- Apple gains nothing contractually from these sales but loses narrative control: the market now prices an unannounced product before Apple sets its own launch terms.
Second-order effects
- Accessory and case makers upstream face the same bet — the 2011 AT&T sleeve shipments show retailers already committed inventory to rumored dimensions, so a design miss strands stock across the channel.
- Carrier and retail partners such as AT&T are pulled into the rumor economy, fielding demand for a product they cannot officially confirm or schedule.
Third-order effects
- If every Apple cycle produces a functioning pre-order market ahead of the announcement, the rumor pipeline becomes a de facto demand-signal system — one suppliers like Pegatron and component makers can read even without a roadmap from Apple.
- The pattern pressures Apple's secrecy model itself: when third parties monetize the gap between rumor and announcement, the announcement matters less than the leak cadence.
The trend: Apple's annual iPhone cycle has spawned a parallel gray-market commerce layer in which Chinese vendors sell unreleased devices and accessories before Apple confirms they exist.