iPhone 5: Delay Expected, July Release Unlikely

Analysts are lining up to predict delays in the launch of Apples biggest products in 2011.

Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, says you shouldnt expect to see the fifth-generation version of the iPhone until September, according to a report in Business Week. That would be unusual because Apple has refreshed its iPhone hardware in June or July in each of the past four years. Of course, this isnt a usual year. Apple just launched a CDMA version of the device earlier this month to run on the Verizon Wireless network, ending AT&Ts exclusive stranglehold on the iPhone. So its been a little busy on the iPhone front.

In his investor note today, Berger lists a number of reasons why a delay is likely. “For the iPhone 5, we continue to hear that a July launch is unlikely, with various casing suppliers and touch suppliers still ramping up, with some chip vendors not having yet received firm iPhone 5 orders, and with other sockets like the image sensor (most likely going to Omnivision exclusively, but with some potential for Sony to split that socket) still in flux.”

Dont expect to see the new iPhone until September, he says. But [it will give Apple more time to enhance its next-generation instant communications on the phone,” Berger wrote.

Despite the delay, expect a whopping 100 million iPhones to be built in 2011, the analyst says, which is higher than most Wall Street estimates and 33 percent higher than FBR Capital Markets previous best guess.

This news follows an analysts report Monday that the follow-up to the original iPad wont be available until June. Most in the industry have been expecting Apple to launch the second-generation tablet in April, one year after the iPad made its debut.