iPhone 5 “Lite” Rumor Suggests Confusing, Complicated Choices For iPhone Users

If you have been following the iPhone 5 rumor mill since its beginning, then this isn’t the first time (nor likely the last) that you will hear rumors of two iPhone 5 species coming to the next iPhone release. Some have framed the rumor as an iPhone 5 “pro” model and a “lite” model, whereas others have imagined the fabled iPhone 4s playing the “lite” role to the “pro” iPhone 5 in September. There were even rumors of an iPhone 5 Nano for some time — a smaller version of the iPhone that would give users a truly pocket-sized option.
The most recent iPhone 5 rumor suggests that, “The iPhone ‘Lite’, whose name is yet to be confirmed, will feature components that are native to the iPhone 4, except smaller and cheaper.” This rumor, which purportedly comes from “sources familiar with the matter,” are completely unconfirmed, and are just a likely to have come from an underpaid customer service representative at an AT&T kiosk at the mall than anyone inside the walls of Cupertino.
The new rumor seeks to substantiate the rumor by stating that “the target markets of the so-called iPhone ‘Lite’ are those in developing countries, where a lower price point would prove more effective than piling on the technology,” and that “Charlie Wolf, with Needham & Company told Bloomberg that ‘Apple’s strategy is changing from targeting 25 per cent of the global mobile phone market…to 100 per cent.’”
Even if lowering the price point of the iPhone to accommodate developing countries’ ec0nomies indeed is a prevailing goal at Apple, Inc., there is no reason to believe that Apple would in fact offer a value-priced version of the new iPhone 5, when the company is most likely preparing to discount the iPhone upon the release of the iPhone 5. In this way, the iPhone 4 will become the “iPhone lite” that comprises this rumor.
Furthermore, if Apple was to release an iPhone 5, iPhone 5 “lite,” and keep selling the iPhone 4, it would present a complex and confusing set of choices for iPhone customers, who would find it difficult to discern the real difference in quality and performance between an iPhone 5 “lite” that would “feature components that are native to the iPhone 4″ and the original iPhone 4 itself.
Another consideration is that two versions of the iPhone 5 may dilute the market impact of the much-anticipated device.
What do you think? Would you find a smaller, cheaper iPhone 5 “lite” or “nano” desireable, or are smaller mobile phones “so 1998?”

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Will iPhone 5 Have Dual LED ?, Whither Siri?, And Why An iPhone 5 Lite Would Be A Smart Strategy For Apple

The Taiwanese IT industry newswatcher site Digitimes’ Siu Han and Steve Shen are reporting that recent insider rumors indicate that the iPhone 5 will likely ship with a dual-LED flash, with Taiwan-based LED packaging firms Everlight Electronics, Edison Opto and Lite-On Technology being pinpointed as potential suppliers, although [ahem....] all related companies are denying involvement with production of dual-LED flashes.
Han and Shen note that these new rumors seem to be related to market reports that Apple has reduced orders for Lumileds high-power LED flash products from Philips electronics recently, and switched to the Taiwanese OEMs for LED flash modules. The article suggests that Edison Opto, which specializes in production of high-power LEDs, has LED flash modules in production and shipping to other smartphone makers, and consequently is considered to be a front-runner to win dual-LED flash orders from Apple according to Digitimes’ as-usual unnamed sources.
Dual flashes are already incorporated in some phone models from HTC and Nokia, to name two, and are said to brighten photo images in general as well as mitigating some common problems associated with single light source, camera-mounted flash photography, such as the dreaded red-eye and unattractive shadowing.
This rumor sounds plausible, and especially interesting to photography buffs like me.
We also have an article up on the iPhone 5 News Ticker that collects some of the best reports around the web that have reported this story. Be sure to check them out here.
Another iPhone 5 talking point I haven’t seen chewed over a lot comes from BusinessInsider’s Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, who wonders what’s happened regarding Siri, the mobile assistant app Apple acquired almost a year ago. Gobry describes Siri as a a mobile search engine of the sort he thinks would’ve been dominant had the Internet been initially developed to support smartphones instead of computers.
In a nutshell, you speak search topics to Siri, which according to Gobry uses uses artificial intelligence algorithms developed by the Pentagon using CIA funding, and the program runs with your request to try and match the best result. Sounds cool.
Gobry cautions that Steve Jobs has explicitly played-down the concept of turning Siri into an iPhone app, explaining that acquisition of the developer was in aid of hiring its engineers and not for the application specifically, but he personally thinks that Siri built right into the iOS would be such an amazing (and Google-trumping) feature, it’s hard to imagine Apple isn’t working on quietly in the background.
Not one for the iPhone 5 in any event.
Much more likely is the persistent rumor of a stripped-down iPhone 5 for less-developed markets. There are as usual different schools of thought about this, with some insisting that Apple would not want to dilute or “cheapen” its market image by offering a less-expensive iPhone variant, but others arguing that one area where the Android brigade continues to trounce Apple is on price, and the burgeoning market in the developing world is simply too large to be ignored. Not so much China, which is now Apple’s biggest iOS device market outside the U.S., but other populous but as yet less prosperous nations like India, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and it is to be hoped eventually Africa as well.
The much-debated Bloomberg news report earlier this week predicted that Apple is working on a presumably iPhone 4-based “cheaper version of the iPhone aimed at attracting customers in developing countries,” and
FastCompany’s Kit Eaton suggests that an “iPhone Lite” could translate into $billions in new sales for Apple, and that the rumored price-leader iPhone will most likely incorporate essentially the iPhone 4′s guts in a cheaper, probably plastic enclosure, and further notes that such a device could be the actual basis for rumor reports about a “radical “iPhone form factor overhaul the blogosphere’s been chattering about, such as scuttlebutt about a super-slim teardrop-shaped case design.
Eaton predicts that if the “iPhone Lite” materializes and can be sold at a price competitive with entry-level Android phones, none of which enjoys the high-end iPhone’s cachet and performance abilities, Apple will be giving Android a real run for the money in developing markets and further suggests that the cheaper model would also be offered in Apple’s traditional iPhone markets as “a swanky entry-level option for the rest of us,” and siphoning off more close-fisted potential handset buyers who would’ve otherwise gone with a cheaper Android phone.
BeatWeek has posted a very interesting food for thought musingon the psychology underlying and motivating consumer decisions to buy Android rather than iOS, suggesting that some Android buyers are merely cheapskates, others are geeks who by nature don’t expect to pay for anything, and a third category simply don’t want to invest money in their phone platform because they don’t plan to be on it for long. Whatever, BeatWeek suggests that many are arriving at the conclusion “that they’ve been sold a geek-obsessed bill of goods, and that their next phone will need to be an actual iPhone if they indeed want the iPhone-like experience they’ve been promised,” observing that “how well Apple manages to leverage this low-hanging (if in some cases not yet ripe) fruit with the iPhone 5 and iOS 5 is up to them.”
Makes good rational sense to me, and as I see it, a price-leader iPhone would too.
What do you think?

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iPhone 5 Late Summer Release Speculation Gains Mainstream News Cycle Credibility

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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Exclusive: Bogus CNET Touting of “New” iPhone 5 Mockup Sends LiquidMetal Stock Shares Soaring

It seems that industry-leading tech news outlet CNET has recently crossed the line from being a reliable reporter of news to the new tabloid in iPhone 5 lore. Just days after CNET UK boldly proclaimed that the iPhone will be released on September 7th, today CNET is reporting that new iPhone 5 mockups posted by Thisismynext.com were crafted from insider information about the next iPhone form factor and thus paint an accurate portrait of what to expect from the iPhone 5.
In an article entitled “Drawings show big changes for iPhone 5,” writer Eric Mack states: “New renderings of what the next iPhone iteration could look like have surfaced on the site This is my next, and they indicate a major overhaul. Multiple sites claim to have confirmed that the iPhone 5 will not be a simple update of the last generation, but a substantial redesign, complete with a new tapered shape to the case.
The problem with this story is that the renderings are not new at all. A single click takes you to the the original post on Thisismynext.com, which was posted way back on April 22nd. The article has had two undated updates, but the article itself goes back to the 22nd — including the mock-up.
Furthermore, Charles Moore reported on the “wedge” or “teardrop”-shaped iPhone 5 mockup in a report of his own here on the iPhone 5 News Blog on April 27th. The mockup is clearly not “new” as CNET has touted it.
Meanwhile, in a related story, LiquidMetal Technologies Inc. stock shares, which is rumored to possibly be supplying the new metal technology for a revolutionary iPhone 5 form factor, saw an early 12% jump in its penny stock today, all as a result of CNET’s report. From the article: “Today’s surge is driven by speculation that Apple’s iPhone 5, which is expected to have a “radical new case design,” may be made of Liquidmetal Technologies’ alloy technology.”

You can get access to all of these stories in one place by visiting the iPhone 5 News Ticker.
The CNET Report: Irresponsible Journalism or Collusion?
In a sea of irresponsible iPhone 5 reports, this CNET mishap could be seen as merely one in a million of other ones made week after week in anticipation of the iPhone 5′s release. Only the fact that CNET, an otherwise respected media outlet, would make such a blunder in reporting this 2 month-old news as “new,” makes this an unusually big misstep in media reporting.
But the misreporting combined with a soaring of a stock that it typically nothing more than a “penny” stock begs a more conspiratorial question: what the CNET editor who approved this story know, and when did he or she know it?
Moreover, is anyone involved in this story a shareholder of LiquidMetal Technologies Inc.?
There is no doubt that the iPhone 5 hype cycle is regularly manipulated for material gain. But with major influencers like CNET touting old stories as new, particularly as we draw closer to the iPhone 5′s imminent release, which send obscure stocks into a frenzy, serious questions have to be raised.

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Opinion: Early Production Suggests iPhone 5, Not iPhone 4s, in Fall

The “iPhone 4s” has become the center of conversation again today, with top tech analysts suggesting that the now much-anticipated September 7th date as being the day that Apple launches the iPhone 4s, leaving the iPhone 5 for 2012. But recent reports of pre-production for new iPhone components suggests that a fall-released iPhone will be more than just a refresh — hence deserving of the iPhone 5 moniker.
Like a bad penny, the iPhone 4s controversy continues on.
After slipping out of the iPhone 5 discussion since the WWDC, tech analysts are once again insisting that CNET UK‘s recent prediction of a September 7th iPhone release will in fact be the iPhone 4s refresh, and not a reworked iPhone 5. The most credible of these predictions came from none other than the IBTimes, who said today that the iPhone released this Fall “should be called iPhone 4S and include minor cosmetic changes, better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ support. He believes Apple had hoped for the LTE chipsets to be ready for the September launch as a best-case scenario but was planning a version without LTE called the iPhone 4S.”
In an article yesterday, the IBTimes also said that, “A new iPhone version in September, which does not have commanding new features promised by iOS 5, will be a lame duck . . . If Apple gets iOS 5 ready later in the fall, then iPhone 5 will have to take the lag as well.”
You can read all of the articles related to these stories today on the iPhone 5 News Ticker.
For the same reason that many people in the iPhone 5 News Blog community have deduced Sherlock Holmes-style that any early September iPhone activity would be an announcement and not a release, the rest of the tech media outlets have transposed into a decidedly geekier concept: that because an iPhone released on September 7th could not have the fall-promised iOS 5, that it must by definition be the more pedestrian, refreshed “iPhone 4s,” thus pushing the iPhone 5 to 2012.
“Oh, my dear Watson!”
For as “elementary” as this theory may be on the part of the mainstream tech media, in the end, it is just as unfounded as virtually every other conspiracy theory surrounding the iPhone 4s/5 saga. The fact is, the tech media has worked tirelessly to get the iPhone 4s story to stick, ever since the rumor that Apple sent suped-up iPhone 4s (the plural of iPhone 4) to app developers was circulated.
Do we even know that those reports were even true? Has anyone ever seen one of these famous iPhone 4ss? (plural of iPhone 4s — I hate that little “s”!)
The fact is, if Apple had sent out a bunch of 4s models to a horde of anti-social app developers, chances are that one of them would have sold it to Gizmodo’s Jason Chen by now, and he’d have it all opened up, spread out, and photographed, like some techno-pornographic centerfold fantasy.
And he’d be in jail.
But because this story became rooted in some sort of false “fact,” people in the media somehow believe that the “iPhone 4s” is more of a reality than the “iPhone 5.”
In the same breath that the IBTimes is predicting the iPhone 4s for September, they have also reported that, “Component manufacturers have begun to receive orders,” and that “the production ramp is expected to start in July,” according to Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies. As of today — June 21st — there are 78 days until the fabled September 7th announcement/release. Since the iPhone 4s would naturally be nothing more than an upgrade of the iPhone 4, why would Apple need 78 days to pop in the A5 chip and a few other minor upgrades?
In addition, the tech media has reported on duel LED flashes, the return to a glass or aluminum back, 8 megapixel camera, and a larger, edge-to-edge screen for the next iPhone, with purported leaked photos to boot. All of these sorts of innovations — in addition to whatever mind-blowing new features Apple could have in store for the next iPhone that we don’t even know about — are on their way in 2011, then the September iPhone would indeed have to be named “iPhone 5,” and production would indeed need to begin now to accommodate these changes to the chassis and form factor.
In the end, Apple may choose to call the iPhone something that we cannot even imagine. Maybe it’ll be the iPhone X. Or the iPhone ɣ. Or the iPhone Artist-Formally-Known-As-Prince. Heck, it could in the end be “iPhone 4s.” But let’s remember that the “iPhone 4s” moniker is no more legitimate than “iPhone 5″ as a possibility, and an early start to production suggests that the “5″ may indeed be on its way.

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iPhone 5 Final Testing Reports, Prototype Spotted Support CNET UK September 7th Prediction

This week, CNET UK processed the big picture for the iPhone 5 and prognosticated a September 7th release date for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 News Blog has always predicted a late-summer release, so we concur. Read about CNET’s logic behind their iPhone 5 release date prediction, and how recent reports of the next iPhone in final testing supports this.
When you follow the full spectrum of iPhone 5 news coverage online, you often find that the audacious predictions made about the next iPhone are usually levied by the news outlets with the least credibility. However, CNET UK, a leading tech media outlet par excellance, boldly predicted an iPhone 5 release date for September 7th. Akin to a degenerate gambler placing her stack of chips on the green “00″ marker at the roulette table, CNET writer Flora Graham laid out her prediction, and the logic behind it:
“We’ve charted the dates, earwigged the rumours and consulted our iPod Ouija board. After 16 hours of number-crunching on the CNET UK supercomputer, we have determined the most likely release date for the iPhone 5 — 7 September 2011 . . . We know this for certain: Apple didn’t announce the iPhone 5 at this year’s Apple WWDC event, as it has in years past. Instead, we got iOS 5. That means we won’t be seeing the iPhone 5 this summer. Steve Jobs, however, said iOS 5 will arrive in the autumn. That’s traditionally when the various iPods are refreshed at a music-themed event . . . That’s why we’re expecting to see the iPhone 5 launch at the same time as iOS 5, in the autumn. In fact, we think the iPhone 5 will cruelly oust the iPod from its own event.”
We’ve collected all of the article related to CNET’s prediction on the iPhone 5 News Ticker. Take a look for more insight.
As many of you know, the iPhone 5 News Blog said on January 8th, “it is quite possible that the iPhone 5 may not be announced until the mid Summer of 2011, with a projected release date sometime in late August or September, just in time for a big Back To School’ promotional push,” which we remind you about ad nauseum.
Sorry about that.
But while our iPhone 5 release date prediction falls short of putting our money on one specific date, we agree with CNET in principle that September 7th is a realistic target date for when we could all be in meandering lines outside of Apple stores nationwide, waiting to plunk down our hard-earned money for what is hopefully a mind-blowing new iPhone design.
Now, reports that the iPhone 5 is in its final testing phases — and that a prototype may even have been spotted — suggests that, while production for its components may have not ramped up yet, we are most certainly getting closer to that mile marker.
Typically, we have seen an announcement for new devices about a month before their release from Apple. Last year, Apple targeted the end of August/beginning of September as the time for its media- and music-centered announcements. This is always a good time for a product announcement, since it pretty much falls at the official end of Summer. Kids are back in school, people are back from August vacations, and everyone is settling back into “normal life.”
To have an iPhone 5 ready on September 7th, Steve Jobs would have to announce it at the beginning of August, which by all public relations estimations would be a poor choice in timing. Therefore, Apple may opt to announce the iPhone 5 around September 7th, and make it available at the end of that month or the beginning of October.
When you think about it, that would make a lot of sense, since the announcement would come at the beginning of Apple’s new fiscal year. Stock share prices would soar, Apple’s Board of Directors would be very pleased with themselves, and iPhone 5′ers would be getting ready to invest in yet another iteration of iPhone goodness.

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iPhone 5 Edge-to-Edge Screen “Edging” Closer To Being a Reality, But Will It Improve the iPhone Experience?

Since last summer, iPhone users have been calling for a larger, edge-to-edge screen for the iPhone 5. New rumors are suggesting that it might be on its way. But will a 4-inch screen dramatically improve the iPhone experience?
iPhone gawkers have been rubbernecking the 2011 class of Android smartphones — some of which sport big slabs ‘o touch screens — and have been jonesing for a 4-inch, edge-to-edge screen for the upcoming iPhone 5. Rumors today abound that they just might get it: 9to5Mac, along with a hoarde of other tech media outlets, have shed light onto app maker SpeechTrans’ recent mock-ups of new Nuance-powered apps that feature the app’s GUI on both framed iPhone 4 screens as well as a smooth, edge-to-edge screen that could be consistent with the iPhone 5.
Pop over to our new iPhone 5 News Ticker site for a peek into three great stories on the new photos and rumor. Read more below for a different perspective on this new piece of news:

The iPhone 5 Edge-to-Edge Screen Question Goes Existential
In an effort to think out of the box, push the envelope, and use some other cliché to mull over the prospect of an edge-to-edge screen, I’ve challenged myself (and now, by extension, you, fellow iPhone 5′er), to ponder this deep and awe-inspiring question: why do we want a 4-inch, edge-to-edge screen for the iPhone 5, and will it significantly improve the interactive experience with our favorite smartphone?
At present, we have a 3.5-inch screen to work with, framed by a thin bezel. The best-case scenario we can hope for on the iPhone 5 is an indulgent, 4-inch screen that seemingly goes to the very edge of the chassis, then disappears off the edge. The addition of an extra .5 inch (measured diagonally across the screen) is not completely superfluous, and by removing the bezel and utilizing more surface area of the chassis, the iPhone 5 can sport a bigger screen without growing significantly in overall size and area, which is a good thing.
But all in all, is the desire for a 4-inch, edge-to-edge screen on the iPhone 5 all about aesthetics?
There is no doubt that the edge-to-edge screen looks cool, and very much fits into Apple’s tradition of simple, minimalist designs. I’ve seen some mock-ups that depict the iPhone 5 with an edge-to-edge screen both top and bottom and left to right, making the entire surface a touch surface. It would indeed look beautiful yet spartan — a device that taps into the mysterious spectre of the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s classic science fiction tableau 2001: A Space Odyssey.
(Ok — I’m getting a wee bit esoteric here, but I think you get the point.)
I now come from a multi-platform, multi-touch screen family, wherein we have the dual screened Kyrocera Echo (Droid) and an iPad 2 to go along with our iPhone. To be sure, the user experience between the iPhone and iPad 2 is significant — we’re talking about almost 6 inches of difference here. But between the iPhone and the Echo — which sports a dual-screened design that actually folds out into a kind of mini tablet, really isn’t as game-changing as you may think. It sucks battery life, and really doesn’t offer that much more workability than simply using the phone in its horizontal view. The Echo does allow you to multi-task by using the separate screens simultaneously with two different apps (great for doing e-mail and Internet at once), but when used together as one large screen, it isn’t all that great.
This isn’t to say that a 4-inch, edge-to-edge screen would or should be seen as a “fail” by any means — even if a larger screen turns out to be less utilitarian than we all imagined, there is always something to be said for aesthetics, and how something looks and feels as enhancing your experience and interaction with it. For my part, I am still in search of the defining feature of the iPhone 5 — the pièce de résistance — that will come to define it as unique and marketing-leading. I’m not so sure that the 4-inch screen will do the trick.
What do you think? Am I just bull goose looney for not thinking that a 4-inch edge-to-edge screen will be a mind-blowing feature for the iPhone 5? Let us know how you think the larger screen could make a world of difference for the iPhone experience, or if I’m onto something here in my thinking.

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Unlocked iPhone 4 Further Extends Sales Cycle, But Will the iPhone 5 Come Unlocked As Well?

iPhone 4 - unlocked

Apple has once again offered a variation on the iPhone 4, this time with an “unlocked” version. Will Apple do the same with the iPhone 5 as well?
Perhaps in a bid to give its iPhone 4 one final, gallant rush of sales, Apple has albeit quietly released an unlocked version of the iPhone 4 on its website. The new unlocked version is contract- and carrier-free, giving users a sim-free slot to stick a GSM sim card of their choice into it — a much-needed option for business users. While Apple has done little promote their newest chapter in the iPhone 4 saga, our guess is that they have most likely reached out to corporations in a B2B marketing push that we average consumers are not seeing.
As Josh Lowensohn at CNET says that, “This new option allows companies big and small to buy phones that will work just about anywhere, and without a contract. This is likely to have a bigger impact on frequent business travelers who are hopping between countries and may not have a company roaming plan.” Due to the fact that “In its most recent quarterly earnings call, Apple noted that the iPhone was being tested or deployed by 88 percent of the Fortune 500,” meaning that businesses could buy up a ton of unlocked iPhone 4s this summer, boosting business sales. Even an increase in government sales of the iPhone 4 could be imminent with this new feature, based on an earlier report that more and more Federal agencies are embracing the use of iPhones.
At $649 and $749 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively, the new unlocked iPhone 4 isn’t a bad deal, and more importantly, it gives prospective iPhone users who travel extensively and seek to be untethered by contracts and carriers a certain degree of freedom that has been lacking in the otherwise proprietary iPhone experience.
You can check out the product page at apple.com here.
Will the iPhone 5 Come Unlocked From the Start?
The appearance of the unlocked iPhone 4 begs the question — will the iPhone 5 feature an unlocked version as well? There is no evidence to suggest either way if Apple will unlock the iPhone 5 from the start, but my opinion is that, at most, Apple will wait to offer the unlocked version at the end of the iPhone 5‘s sales cycle — just as they have with the iPhone 4.
Apple is famous for business and revenue models based on proprietary systems, in-house technologies, and close-bonded partnerships: iTunes, the aversion to third-party technology, and a limited palette of mobile carriers in the U.S. combines to form a tightly-woven tapestry of business infrastructure that keeps Apple customers locked in to their computing experience. A free-form, open-source, “unlocked” approach to doing business is not typical for Apple. That’s Android’s domain.
In additi0n, Apple relies on the leverage of its partnerships with AT&T, Verizon, and perhaps T-Mobile and even Sprint in the future, to tap into vast quantities of mobile phone subscribers who because iPhone users by purchasing them through their carrier. Would Apple sell nearly as many iPhones if it were not for these strategic partnerships? My guess is no.
The only development over the next three months that could change this prognostication would be if companies begin to adopt the iPhone en masse, and Apple sees huge gains as a result. And it isn’t impossible to imagine: Blackberry has been the go-to device for business smartphones for quite some time now, and in many ways, they are seen as “legacy” devices that lack the flexibility and reliability of the iPhone. As business 2.0 hits its stride, the iPhone may become the smartphone of choice for business users.
And now, Apple has given them an iPhone that likes to travel internationally.

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