As speculation for the iPhone 5S grows, the original iPhone, however, will cease to exist.
According to an internal document from Apple, the original iPhone will be classified as "obsolete" or "vintage" come June 11. The classification will take place across the Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, the U.S., and Apple retail stores.
A screenshot of Apple products state the following products will also be classified as "vintage:"
- AirPort Express Base Station
- 20-inch and 24-inch iMac from mid 2007
- Mac Pro
- Late 2007 13-inch MacBook
- 15-inch MacBook Pro with 2.4/2.2GHz
- 17-inch MacBook Pro with 2.4GHz
- Xserve from late 2006
- Xserve RAID SFP from late 2004
Apple products classified as obsolete are:
- 17-inch iMac G5 with iSight,
- 20-inch iMac G5 with iSight,
- late 2005 Mac mini,
- 15-inch PowerBook G4 with Double-Layer SD,
- 17-inch PowerBook G4 with Double-Layer SD.
As for the iPhone, it will receive "vintage" status only in the U.S., while other areas in the world will view it as obsolete.
According to Apple Support, vintage products are "those that were discontinued more than five and less than seven years ago."
As for "obsolete," "those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products."
The iPhone 5S, meanwhile, has analysts going crazy in predicting a release date.
Citigroup Capital Markets' Glen Yeung stated Apple will delay the iPhone 5S from June or July to approximately August or September. He noted volume production problems will likely create the delay.
According to France's NoWhereElse, a document from Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI stated a July release date is set with pre-orders going as early as June 20. The document's findings is similar to a report by MacFan, which stated Apple will hold an event on Thursday, June 20, to showcase the iPhone 5S. In addition, they added iPhone 5S is expected to go on sale in early July.
Apple hasn't commented on potential release dates for the next iPhone, but CEO Tim Cook might have provided a hint.
"Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services we can't wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014," said Cook. "I don't want to be more specific, I'm just saying we've got some really good stuff coming in the fall and in all of 2014."