Apple investors pay the price for iPhone rumour mill

The company's third-quarter sales and profits, announced last night, were below analysts' expectations. Apple blamed, in part, the fact that some people are waiting for the next iPhone.

Apple's 'disappointing' numbers were the kind that Nokia would kill for. The 26 million iPhones sold was an increase year-on-year but a drop from the last quarter and Mac sales were slower than expected because the updated computers didn't arrive until the end of the quarter. The iPad was the star performer, with another 17 million sold, but the tablet computers are less profitable, per unit, than iPhones.

In short, sales and profits are good but not as good as hoped and rumours about the next iPhone are partly to blame.

"We're reading the same speculation about a new iPhone as you are and we think this has caused some delay in purchasing," sais Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer.

Tim Cook, the company's chief executive, added: "We try very hard to keep our product roadmap secret and confidential, and we go to extreme activities to do that. That, however, doesn't stop people from speculating or wondering."

Cook said he wasn't complaining about that. He said: "I'm glad people want the next thing."

The company has made something of a rod for its own back, however. The annual updates for major products such as the iPhone and iPad naturally has the effect of making people wonder whether they should buy now or wait and see whether a new product is just around the corner.

Friends who would never normally pay attention to technology product cycles now regularly ask me whether a new iPhone is about to come out or simply tell me they have decided to wait for the next one. Apple has, to an extent, trained mainstream buyers to think this way.

The secrecy that Cook talks about allows Apple to maintain an element of surprise with new products but the company's long record of success has also created a mini-industry of Apple-watchers who seize on every clue that leaks from the supply chain in an attempt to be first to discover the new product. This is a game as much as anything - all of these products will be public eventually - but Apple's reputation for hit new products has made even casual observers take an interest in what the company does next.

And, of course, Apple is as complicit in the game as anyone. Tim Cook said: "We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline."

Amazing new products, you say? Now what could those be? And so the rumour mill turns again.