iPhone WILL NOT Ship June 11th


iphonereleasedatecountdown_20070110110016.jpgDespite earlier reports from Cingular, the Apple iPhone WILL NOT be shipping on June 11th, 2007.

How do we know?

Easy…Apple said so.

Buried in their “Apple Statement” yesterday was a very easily forgettable line that says “[The iPhone] is on schedule to ship in late June as planned”. June 11th is not LATE June…it’s mid June.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see the iPhone actually ship until June 26th. In fact, if I was going to predict a date based on Apple’s info so far, that’s the one I’d choose.

2007 is turning into the year of Apple delays. Hopefully, the iPhone won’t be another feather in the delay cap come the end of June.


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

15 Comments

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  1. Possibly, but I think it all comes back to how much they’re going to let developers work with it. If they’re not going to be very open with the iPhone, then I don’t think they’ll be doing much with it at WWDC.

  2. Why the statement “2007 is turning into the year of Apple delays”?? The iPhone was NEVER scheduled to be released on June 11 – Apple has always maintained “in June”, and has recently clarified to indicate “late June”. The fact that Apple is not beholden to a set of rumor sites the their ship dates, does not a “delay” make.

    So, with one definitive delay (of Leopard, from the previously-indicated “Spring 2007” to October), how come so many sites are trying to indicate that delays are somehow rampant across the company?

    Oh, that’s right: To gain readership by posting knowingly-false, or at least sensationalistic, articles.

  3. That’s right, SomeOne, there’s only technically been one delay. But it was poorly handled. Why tie the iPhone to Leopard’s unreadiness? That just gives the impression that both of them are overweight. They should have just left the iPhone out of it and let Leopard take the hit all on its own, since if you tie them both into a single story, it isn’t going to be a good one for either of them.

    This was a suboptimal solution to the prospect of a delayed Leopard. So I think the story here is not, ‘What happened to Apple’s ability to ship on time?’ It’s more, ‘What happened to Apple’s expert public relations?’

    This was a misstep. I’m surprised Jobs signed off on this one.

  4. Er..

    Actually there have been two delays…
    Apple TV was late by about 5 weeks and now Leopard has been pushed back.

  5. “I think it all comes back to how much they’re going to let developers work with it. If they’re not going to be very open with the iPhone, then I don’t think they’ll be doing much with it at WWDC.”

    Apple has already said that the iPhone will be a closed platform. Considering Apple’s current “resource difficulties” (ie, not enough people), this is one reason I’m not getting an iPhone.

    For example, one handy thing on the iPhone would be an expense tracker. Not a horrifically difficult thing to write. But if we have to wait for Apple to do it, we’ll be waiting another 2 years (Hey, Apple, how’s the spreadsheet for iWork coming?). Let third-party developers at it, though, you’ll have three of them in a month and a good one in 6 months. And Apple wouldn’t even have to use any of it’s development staff.

    “Why the statement ‘2007 is turning into the year of Apple delays’??”

    Well, AppleTV and Leopard for one. Also, while it hasn’t been announced, where’s iLife ’07 and iWork ’07? There are two products that are looking for updates and enhancements (I still use AppleWorks for the spreadsheet). How about Mac hardware, for that matter? We haven’t seen anything on that front for a couple of years now. Haven’t seen anything new for displays in more than that. Hell, how about the same old display with a built-in iSight?

    And, finally…

    “Why tie the iPhone to Leopard’s unreadiness?”

    A few reasons.

    1) Apple is publicly traded company. If Apple is going to not have that Leopard revenue in June, as previously announced, they’d better give the investors a damn good reason why. Keep in mind that the push back to October knocks it out of FY2007, so Apple revenues will be affected for FY2007 which will affect Apple’s numbers. Wall Street will want to know why.
    2) Basic spin control–add good news to bad news. As this article points out, we have “good news” about what is seen as a big deal product–the iPhone (namely a more accurate ship date). So if you’re going to give bad news, give some good news too.
    3) Assuming it’s true, you’d want everybody to know that Apple is going to get it’s hot new product out on time. There’s lots of buzz for the iPhone and Apple wants to let everybody know that the iPhone is on schedule–they’ve even pulled resources from other projects to get that baby into your hands in June, as promised.

  6. June 11 was never announced by Apple – it was a date started by someone who allegedly called Cingular and asked and the person on the phone said June 11 – it does coincide with the opening day of WWDC but there was never any actual confirmation of June 11.

  7. Michael,

    While I fully agree with you about two product delays (Leopard/AppleTV), that June 11 2007 iPhone release date really was unconfirmed information based on a response from ONE AT&T CSR, without any further confirmations whatsoever (and a lot of people tried to get that confirmation, including us), which puts it (June 11 release date) somewhere in a category of “unconfirmed rumors” rather than “reports from Cingular”, so this certainly doesn’t qualify as an additional delay.

    At any rate, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for June release date. I’d be very disappointed if iPhone was to be delayed as well.

  8. @SomeOne

    Others have already explained the comment here, but I thought I would go ahead and verify why I said that 2007 is turning into the “year of Apple delays”…

    So far this year we’ve had 1 major product release. AppleTV…and it was delayed.

    The other major product release for 2007 that we knew about coming into this year was Leopard. It was set for Spring. It has been delayed to October. That ain’t spring.

    The only other major announcement so far has been the iPhone…and so far it is on track.

    That still means that only 1/3 of the products that Apple gaves us a time frame on this year have been shipped on time.

    So yeah, right now they’re 0 for 2, with 1 more product in the batter’s box right now. Let’s hope they get that one out on time.

  9. Well, 5 weeks is certainly technically a delay but it’s short enough that relying on it to complete a “trend” doesn’t come off very well. Without this very weak data point you have no trend at all.

  10. @DBL –

    Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and you’re certainly entitled to yours, but I don’t think 5 weeks is “technically” a delay. 5 weeks means that a product shipped more than a month after it was supposed to, and they didn’t tell us about it until a few days before it was supposed to ship. It’s a delay. It may not be a 5 year Microsoft style delay, but we’re not talking about Microsoft. We’re talking about Apple…and they typically do a better job than this on getting products out to us.

    If they had released more stuff this year it wouldn’t look so bad…but they haven’t. So far this year, other than releasing the AppleTV all we’ve heard from the company is what they’re going to do, and how great it’s going to be…we haven’t actually had any of these wonderful products to purchase and use for ourselves.

    If you have 3 things that come out, and 2 of them are late…it’s a trend. That’s all there is to it.

  11. @ Dennis –

    I’m not counting the June 11th iPhone release. That’s why I’m saying 1 out of 3 is still on track…the other two were delayed. If I was counting the iPhone release date too, then it would be 0 for 3.

    I’m sorry if I wasn’t being clear on that. I’m filled with caffiene and fury right now.

  12. wow, now we’re already talking about a “5 year delay” when referring to Microsoft? so Vista was announced for late 2001? didn’t XP come out in 2001?

  13. At the January MacWorld, Apple first announced the iPhone would be available in June. By definition, that means: Anytime between June 1 and June 30.

    So, why get upset about it? Let’s allow them to do their work.

  14. Robert –

    I’m not upset about the iPhone’s release date. At the time I posted this I was (and still am) more upset about the Leopard delay. My comment about all the delays is what sparked all the back and forth…