Act surprised: Apple is starting to tick all of the regulatory boxes necessary to launch a new iPhone. That’s right, the iPhone 15 lineup is just a month away and if we didn’t already have enough confirmation of its existence, a new regulatory filing in India puts more fuel on the fire.
As spotted by the folks at MySmartPrice, an unreleased “Apple smartphone with the model number A3094” has surfaced in the Bureau of Indian Standards database this week. While the listing itself doesn’t provide any confirmation of what exactly this device is, chances are an unreleased “Apple smartphone” popping up this time of the year represents one of the iPhone 15 models.
Further sleuthing by 9to5Mac confirms that this is a valid Apple model number and that Apple is preparing its backend infrastructure to handle the A3094 device – and others – ahead of next month’s iPhone 14 launch.
This comes almost exactly one year after an unreleased “Apple smartphone” appeared in the same Indian regulatory database ahead of the iPhone 14’s launch last year. That model turned out to be the standard iPhone 14, and the regulatory database was eventually updated with the rest of the iPhone 14 lineup.
Earlier today, a separate report revealed that Apple has also started iPhone 15 production in India, joining ongoing production in China. Apple’s goal is to ship iPhone 15 models from both India and China at the same time this year, though it’s still unclear if it will achieve that goal this year.
A recent iOS 16 beta also referenced new AirPods with a model number of A3048 and case model number of A2968. There’s still no word on when these AirPods will see the light of day, but they’re expected to be an updated version of AirPods Pro with USB-C for charging.
So yes, a new iPhone is coming. It’ll be called the iPhone 15 and Apple is in the process of jumping through all of the regulatory and logistical hurdles to prepare for the September release.
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