When the iPhone smartphones were first introduced in the market no one could have possibly predicted how immensely popular they would turn out to be or how they would completely revolutionize a whole generation of people. As a matter of fact, not only did they transform the manner people used their phones for, it also created a brand new industry – the Smartphone – wherein it is the undisputed reining champion. While it is true that the Android devices have made big inroads in eating away this lead to a certain extent, there is still not a single smartphone that possesses the same depth of penetration in the marketplace to provide a serious competition to the iPhone.
And Apple continues to launch upgrades and enhancements to its iconic iPhone product. Now people are waiting with bated breath to hear more information regarding the newest version of the iPhone – the iPhone 5 (or possibly the iPhone 4S depending on which side of the arguments you lean to) that is expected to be the successor of the immensely popular iPhone 4G. There is no doubting the fact that iPhone 4 is a huge hit among users. Hence, as a matter of fact, Apple is planning to produce 15 million units of the iPhone 5 ready when it announces the iPhone 5 release date. If the current iPhone 5 rumors are anything to go by, it is believed that iPhone 5 will be launched in October 2011. So great is the expectation running amongst people for this path breaking product, Apple is expecting to sell a record 25 million units before the end of 2011.
Whilst there were some issues with the iPhone 4, most importantly some problems with the antenna that impacted people trying to receive and make calls, it is anticipated that the new iPhone 5 device will offer a much better experience in this aspect together with a whole range of enhanced features and specifications.
Listed below are some of the anticipated iPhone 5 specs.
Processing Power
It is widely expected that the iPhone 5 will be making use of Apple’s A5 dual-core processor. This is a super fast and powerful processor and was first used by Apple in the iPad 2. A5 processor is a pretty significant enhancement and improvement over the A4 processor. Apart from the improved processor, the expectations are also set high for an enhancement in the RAM capacity and the overall storage space of the iPhone 5.
There are however other rumors that claim that iPhone 5 was not launched in June (in line with the release of previous models of iPhone by Apple) on account of the A5 processor overheating when it was tested out in the new iPhone 5. If the processor problems are indeed true and if Apple is unable to identify a solution in time for the much anticipated launch of the iPhone 5 in October, then it is entirely possible that the next iPhone model from Apple might not be as revolutionary as widely anticipated and would probably be just a small and incremental enhancement to the immensely popular iPhone 4.
iPhone 5 Operating System
The essence of the new iPhone 5 will certainly be its newest iOS5 operating system. The iOS5 operating system, very recently launched by Apple, features a few significant differences to its predecessors, most importantly cutting the tether to the PC and iTunes in general. It should however be noted that flash unfortunately isn’t still an option with the Apple iPhone 5. Whilst a few Android based smartphones have certainly placed emphasis on the availability of Flash in their systems to be a key differentiator, the absence of Flash on iPhone has not seriously impacted Apple’s market share, at least as of now.
One another key enhancement with regard to the new OS would be the fact that all the software updates will now be sent wirelessly. To the relief of the users, these updates would only include the changes and the entire Operating System.
iPhone Nano
Surprisingly though, there are also rumors of an iPhone Nano having a 3 inch screen. If the rumors of iPhone Nana are to be believed, then Nano will be doing away with the Home button and thus making them considerably smaller in size when compared with the present generation of iPhones available in the market. The smaller iPhone Nano will primarily built with iPhone 4 components, and these will be marketed at a significant discount to the other iPhones available in the market. This can potentially be opening up the budget conscious market segment to Apple’s products.
While the budget friendly iPhone Nano is certain to entice the non-smartphone users to Apple, it is also anticipated that it will chip away the market share of the budget Android handsets that are available. Though there are ample valid reasons for Apple to be eyeing the smaller budget market segment, all these rumors are pretty much unconfirmed at this point in time. Sources at Apple say that Apple might not be considering the release of a smaller iPhone.
iPhone 5 Camera
Rumors about the new iPhone 5 features are now pointing out that the new iPhone 5 will be sporting an 8 megapixel camera. Even while Nokia’s N8 sporting a 12 megapixel camera is still superior to iPhone 5 in this aspect, the iPhone 5 camera and lens (quite possibly supplied by Sony) would still be a vast improvement compared to the 5 megapixel camera that is included in the iPhone 4. With improved LED flash, the iPhone 5 camera can now make a big impact.
iPhone 5 Price
It is believed that the iPhone 5 price will be in the range of $500 for high end models.