After Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty pegged a dual release date for two iPhone 5 successors in 2013 -- the "iPhone 5S" (the true follow-up) and a cheaper "low-cost iPhone 6" -- Kirk Yang from Barclay's (via Taiwan's Commercial Times) chimed in on Friday, releasing a similar note that said Apple is indeed preparing to release both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 in the same period, between August and September of this year.
According to Yang, Apple will release both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 in two models each: One model will feature the standard support for frequency-division duplexing (FDD) technology, which is used by most of the world's carriers, but another model is said to finally support the unique time-division duplexing (TDD) technology used by China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), the largest telecommunications carrier in the world.
This report makes a great deal of sense, considering Apple's reported efforts over the past several years to woo China Mobile into introducing the iPhone on its platform. With 703 million active subscribers, Apple badly wants to strike a deal with the carrier -- on Jan. 10, Apple CEO Tim Cook even stopped by China Mobile headquarters to meet with company chairman Xi Guohua, looking to "discuss matters of cooperation."
Yang's report says Foxconn will work on three models of the iPhone 5 successor, while Pegatron has already received orders to build the lower-cost TD-LTE-capable iPhone 6.
The report says Apple is still crunching the numbers, looking to estimate how much the cheaper, lower-cost iPhone 6 might cut into sales of the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 5S vs. iPhone 6 predicament is not dissimilar from the iPad vs. iPad Mini predicament, which the company is still trying to figure out, as iPad Mini sales continue to cannibalize sales of its larger, older brother.
That said, Yang said Apple does expect to ship more iPhones in 2013 than it did in 2012, which would be a given if the company actually does release two iPhone models this year.
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