(Reuters) – Apple’s next-generation iPhone will have a faster processor and will begin shipping in September, three people with direct knowledge of the company’s supply chain said.
The production of the new iPhone will start in July/August and the smartphone will look largely similar to the iPhone 4, one of the people said on Wednesday.
The iPhone — introduced in 2007 with the touchscreen, on-demand application template now adopted by its rivals — remains the gold standard in the booming smartphone market.
Reports on the timeline of the new iPhone launch vary, though it is largely expected that Apple will likely refresh its iPhone 4 later this year.
The sources declined to be identified because the plans for the new iPhone were not yet public.
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Suppliers to the new iPhone include camera module maker Largan Precision Co Ltd, touchscreen panel maker Wintek Corp and case maker Foxconn Technology Co Ltd, two of the people said.The companies would begin production either in July or August before shipping components to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, flagship of Foxconn Technology Group, for assembly, they said.
The full Reuters article can be found here.
If the rumours are true, then we can expect the following …
- It will have a dual-core A5 processor (as used in the iPad 2)
- a switch to Qualcomm baseband chips for CDMA and GSM
- likely to include 64GB of storage
- a slightly larger screen,
- an aluminum back
- Not sure about the 8 megapixel camera rumors, the Sony factory that was producing the new camera that would have gone inside the iPhone got destroyed in the tsunami, but I suspect they will still try for this, it just won’t be (for obvious reasons) the Sony camera.
- improved antenna design [Well yes, that almost goes without saying]
- However, a big new item might also be a new OS … IOS 5 would not only address some of the glaring issues in the current iOS (notifications, for example) but will also add many features designed to leapfrog the competition. The question is whether iOS 5 will debut with the iPhone 5 or after it.
All I can say is that I, like many others, are really looking forward to the far faster chipset. A lot of what I have on my current generation iPhone is way too sluggish for my liking, so the big winner for me will be the A5 processor. thats what drives me to make the leap.