Apple plans new iPhone launch for 10 September, say reports

Apple CEO Tim Cook: expected to announce fingerprint-detecting technology with update to the iPhone 5. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Apple is thought to be planning the release of two new phones on 10 September, including a much-anticipated cheaper iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 5C.
As well as an incremental update to the current iPhone 5, expected to include fingerprint-detecting technology, the iPhone 5C would be Apple's first lower-end phone. Historically, Apple has fulfilled the needs of the low-end market by offering previous years' models at cut-down prices.
Industry suppliers have been told to expect the new device in mid-September, but a leak to news site All Things D claimed the launch is set for 10 September.
At a recent earnings call, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook reiterated that plan to investors. When asked about the potential of a low-cost iPhone to first time smartphone buyers, he replied that the number attracted by the iPhone 4 was "very, very impressive. We want to attract as many of these buyers as we can".
He added that "where iPhone 5 continues to be the most popular iPhone by far, we are really happy to provide an incredible high-quality product with iPhone 4 running iOS 6 to as many first-time smartphone buyers as we can."
However, there have long been hints that the company was considering going in a different route, perhaps modelled on the iPod product line. During an earlier call in January of this year, Cook pointed to the line as the model of how it thought about low-cost devices, saying: "I think we've had a great track record here on iPod, doing different products at different price points and getting a reasonable share from doing that."
Each tier of iPod is a very different product from the others, to the extent that the iPod Shuffle and iPod Touch have barely anything in common.
Apple may have switched gears due to a weakness in Chinese sales, or a move to unify the shape of the iPhone line. In July, Cook discussed the slowdown in China, but argued that it was "continuing to invest in distribution, we're going to double the number of retail stores there for the next two years and we're continuing to lift iPhone point of sales and iPad sales, both of which are currently lower than where we would want them or need them today".
Additionally, there is a renewed impetus to unify the product line around the iPhone 5's 16:9 screen, the biggest change in form factor since the original iPhone in 2007.

Culled from The Guardian