Friday, April 29, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Insider Reports That The iPhone 5 Essentially A Tweaked iPhone 4

Posted: 29 Apr 2011 06:20 AM PDT


iphone 5 big camera

Will features like an 8 megapikel camera, A5 chip & iOS 5 be enough for the iPhone 5?

 

It would stand to reason that the iPhone 5‘s features would match or even surpass current Android smartphones and excite iPhone users enough to buy in to the new model. But as iPhone 5 News Blog columnist Charles Moore reports below, credible tech and financial media outlets are citing sources that suggest lackluster improvements to the iPhone 5.

As Michael noted in his editorial, the white iPhone 4 turned out to be, well, a white iPhone 4 — nothing more, nothing less. No A5 chip; No iOS 5; No 8 megapixel camera. The good news is that those three features are pipped to appear in the iPhone 5 by a couple of financial analysts with insider contacts. What may be bad news for some is that those features may be the most significant changes distinguishing the iPhone 5 from the present iPhone 4, and those hoping for a more radical revision may well have to wait for the iPhone 6 sometime in 2012.

iPhone 5 Release Date Rumors Remain In Flux

In terms of a release update, other tech media outlets remain wildly divided on when both production and launch will begin for the iPhone 5. A widely cited Avian Securities research note earlier this month, excerpted by BusinessInsider’s Jay Yarow, maintains that, based on conversations with a key component supplier, iPhone 5 mass production won’t begin until September, leading them to deduce that the launch is to be in very late 2011 or more likely 2012.

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to investors posted Monday, April 18, concurs roughly with Avian Securities on the probable production startup and launch time frames (he anticipates some sort of announcement at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), to be held June 6 through 10 with a product launch possibly as early as October).

Lackluster Features Coming to the iPhone 5?

Kuo also says he’s been told by his supply chain sources that the iPhone 5 will not be an all-new design but rather a refreshed and enhanced iPhone 4, incorporating only what Kuo calls “slight modifications” from the iPhone 4 specs, including the faster A5 processor, an 8 megapixel rear camera, a switch to a Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA variants, and an improved antenna design.

Most alarming is that Kuo expects iOS 5 will be a “main selling point” of the iPhone 5, and will have already been released or at least announced before the fifth-generation phone itself.

You can read the entire AppleInsider report here.

Some of us might quibble with Kuo’s characterization of those changes as “slight”, but what he’s predicting does fall well short of expectations for those anticipating a major redesign with a completely new form factor, as we have discussed on this blog.

For that, Kuo says we’ll probably have to wait for the iPhone 6, which he says is in the works with a new design and greatly improved hardware specifications. According to a new rumor from Japanese newspaper Nikkan, cited mid-week by Appleinsider, one of those improved specs could be new displays constructed from poly silicon, or p-Si, thinner than the displays used in the iPhone 4.

Current iOS 5 Testing May Dispel iPhone 4s Rumors

In addition, The Mac Observer’s Jeff Gamet reports that Apple and AT&T are apparently already testing iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in real-world conditions, citing crash reports courtesy of developer FutureTap, which also indicate that the iOS 5 tests are being conducted on currently available iPhone, iPod touch and iPad models, and not on the rumored prototype iPhone 4s.

Charles W. Moore is a columnist for PBCentral and Applelinks, Appletell, and LowEndMac, and an exclusive iPhone news contributor for the iPhone 5 News Blog.

What do you think? Do you believe all these reports? Based on the dazzling new features of the 15+ new Android smartphones in 2011 alone, will a “refreshed” iPhone 5 be able to keep pace with Droid and energize iPhone users to invest in the new model? Or, is the iPhone risking a decline as a market-leading smartphone? Let us know what you think!