Some Post-WWDC Next-Generation iPhone Notes Rumors, And Predictions

Dave Caolo at The Unofficial Apple Weblog has uncovered an explanation for the ambiguity over what the next iPhone will be called, noting that USB device files in yet-unreleased iOS 5 firmware’s iOS system files that reference “iPad3,1″ and “iPad3,2,” “iPhone4,1,” and “iPhone4,2,” therefore deducing that the iPhone 5 will be a 4th generation unit because the iPhone 3G was technically 1st generation which skews the numbering order and could be the genesis of much of the confusion. Sounds like a plausible theory anyway.
Another interesting tidbit encountered over the past several days is in a Wall Street Journal blog by Dave Kansaswho says market research firm CLSA believes Apple will release an iPad3 with a better display and LTE support in time for the Christmas buying season, but doesn’t expect an LTE iPhone in 2011. I’m not sure why that would be, but presumably they are basing that prediction on something more than supposition.
MarketWatch’s Rex Crum Reports that most analysts expect the iPhone to be refreshed later this year, but cites Gleacher & Co.’s Apple specialist Brian Marshall predicting Apple will release a “4s” version of the iPhone in the second half of this year, and an iPhone 5 in late 2012, while Piper Jaffray’s veteran Apple watcher Gene Munster also expects Apple to release its next generation of the iPhone most likely in September, but isn’t quoted on numerical designation prognostications.
As for whether near field communications (NFC) technology will make it into the next iPhone, that’s still an imponderable. Electronista reports that according to NFC chipmaker NXP Technology, Apple’s plans for NFC remain “unknown,” citing a report from Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White who attended week’s Computex expo in Taiwan, who noted that 80 percent of the smartphone market has already committed to NFC, including Nokia and Research in Motion, but there’s no clue has yet to Apple’s plans. however, White also thinks that based on his investigations at Computex, the next-generation iPhone will still probably ship in September, according to the report.
In the meantime, iOS five is coming for sure in the fall, and there is conjecture as to whether some features will not work the iPhone 3GS. A report by 9To5Mac’s Christian Zibreg notes that in the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs confirmed that iOS 5 will run on both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, but suggests that if history is any indication, some of the new operating system’s features likely won’t work on older devices due to constrained resources, and that, unsurprisingly for Apple, the iOS 5 features page reveals nothing about possible limitations on legacy hardware.
However, he’s posted a video clip by a blogger who has checked it out and reports “In my opinion, iOS 5 beta works flawlessly on iPhone 3GS.”