New iPhone could get earlier release to bump Apple’s stock price back up

Apple seems to be pretty happy with its Q3 2012 results: $35 billion in revenue, 17 million iPads sold, 26 million iPhones sold, and it now sits on a pile of $117 billion in cash. Wall Street, however, isn’t as pleased. Apple missed many analysts’ expectations for iPhone sales and revenue and as a result, the stock price plummeted yesterday after the earnings call by about $30. As I type, it’s currently at $576.21, which is a slight increase from yesterday’s low but still down over 4 percent.

According to GottaBeMobile, Apple could release the new iPhone a bit earlier — say, in September — to satisfy Wall Street and hopefully boost the stock price back up into the $600 range. Just a few days ago rumors began flying that the iPhone would debut in September instead of October, but now that the earnings are out and investors are disappointed, Apple has yet another reason to release it a month ahead of schedule.

At the earnings call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer blamed the somewhat underwhelming iPhone sales numbers on all the recent sixth-generation iPhone rumors. “We’re reading the same rumors and speculation that you are about a new iPhone and we think this has caused some pause in customers purchasing,” he said.

Of course, releasing the iPhone in September wouldn’t help Q4 sales numbers very much because the new iPhone’s figures would only count toward the end of the quarter. Apple also wouldn’t release the next iPhone if it simply wasn’t ready, so if the manufacturing process isn’t complete by September, it probably won’t be rushed to market.

[via GottaBeMobile]