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Two out of the three Apple iPhones in development “will likely see the light of day,” wrote Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu in an April 8 company note to investors.
Apple itself isn’t revealing much, but Wu nonetheless had news and predictions to offer. The two new iPhones will allow users to choose between richer and lighter options.
“One of these new iPhones will contain a much more powerful application processor enabling it to run more complex software,” Wu wrote in his research note. “It is not clear to us if this will replace the current 3G iPhone. One area we hear of material improvement is battery life.”
The other iPhone, Wu wrote, will in “high likelihood” be a “junior or mid-range device with less functionality.”
The new hardware is anticipated to arrive in June or September, though it seems likely that Apple will announce it at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) running June 8-12 in San Francisco.
The Palm Pre will also debut in June-the two-year anniversary of the iPhone-and is expected to offer Apple’s darling some real competition.
Wu writes that there could be a risk to Apple’s revenue numbers in the June quarter if “the ramp of new iPhones occurs in late June or July.” He says a similar phenomenon occurred in June 2008, where 2.5G iPhone shipments declined to 717,000 units, as customers put off purchases in favor of waiting for the new model to arrive.
Additionally, Wu expects AT&T and other carriers to develop tiered data plans-versus the one-size-fits-all unlimited plans available today-given the current economic climate. It would also enable AT&T to “make its business with the heaviest uses more profitable.”