The rumor mills kicked into turbo-boost mode on Tuesday, with a shot of added gravitas supplied by the respected major news service Bloomberg weighing in. A Bloomberg report picked up by many mainsteeam media says that Apple Inc. is planning to launch a new model iPhone featuring its internally designed A5 dual-core processor that currently powers the iPad 2, and an upgraded camera — probably 8-megapixel resolution as opposed to the iPhone 4′s 5-megapixel unit, citing two unnamed insider sources claimed to be “familiar with the plans”, also suggesting that the new Apple handset will closely resemble the current iPhone 4 in form factor, and ship with iOS 5 installed (which brings us back to the debate over what Steve Jobs actually meant when he announced that the iOS 5 release would be sometime “this fall”).
The Bloomberg story also claims that Apple is working on a stripped-down, cheaper version of the iPhone targeting consumers in developing countries and testing its next iPad refresh, with a higher resolution display (“similar to the one now used in the iPhone 4″ – ie: “Retina Display”) to be its marquee new feature, but with only “about one-third higher) res., which contradicts other scuttlebutt about massively higher resolution iPad screens, possibly with 3D technology, in the works for iPad 3.
BGR’s Jonathan S. Geller also weighed in yesterday saying that BGR has independently confirmed based on information from what he considers a reliable source that the next-gen iPhone release will not be merely an upgraded iPhone 4 (eg: the now legendary iPhone 4S that’s been rumored for the past month or so) but rather will have “a radical new case design” with a consensus growing (although Geller doesn’t state who’s party to it) projecting an announcement but not necessarily a product release at Apple’s traditional September event, with the usually-featured iPod upgrade announcements possibly deferred until later.
However, Geller breaks with what’s been rumorista conventional wisdom for the past week or so in suggesting that Apple *may* hold an event in mid-August to announce the new iPhone in advance of a September product rollout, which would please many anxious folks waiting in the iPhone 5 aspirational queue.
More circumstantial evidence supporting an iPhone 5 release in the not-too-distant future comes in a report from the Taiwan-based electronics industry watcher site Digitimes, whose Ingrid Lee and Jessie Shen report that interestingly, despite the fact that the third calendar quarter is traditionally a peak output season for consumer electronics component and assembly manufacturers, Taiwan-based suppliers have cut projections for the quarter by roughly 10 percent for orders placed by Apple, with Taiwan-based firms involved with manufacturing OEM components for iPads and iPhones having booked disappointing order volumes for these devices in Q2 2011 according to anonymous sources, and that so in June, with barely more than a week left in the month, orders have yet to pick up. This could indicate that Apple is phasing down iPhone 4 production in preparation for an iPhone 5 launch soon.
CNET’s Eric Mac also blogged yesterday that according to speculative artistic rendering on the site “This is my next” and other rumors, iPhone 5 will be a substantial redesign, with a new tapered form factor case and a larger Home button (as opposed to the Home button being scrapped as other schools of thought have contended. Also floated by TIMN is that the iPhone 5 will be able to go global with both GSM and CDMA support in the same device.
The takeaway from all this? Still up in the air, so to speak, IMHO. These new tidbits and snippets are interesting, but I’m still inclined to think a September announcement at what will more likely still be an iPod oriented event followed by an iPhone 5 release in the fall/autumn proper (that is after September 21) will likely be what unfolds, but that’s purely based on longtime Apple-watching and deductive reasoning, and like everyone else commenting, what do I know?
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