Lorraine Luk of the Wall Street Journal has reported that, according to sources, the next gen of iPhone can be expected in Q3 of this year but could face delays because it is “complicated and difficult to assemble.”
The time-frame for this supposed release date has been expected by much of the tech industry ever since Apple’s WWDC, at which they stated that iOS5 and iCloud would be available to consumers come Fall. It of course made sense that we could be seeing a next-gen device to go with all of these shiny new features.
However, the news that a new iPhone could be delayed due to it being “complicated and difficult to assemble” is certainly interesting, as past iPhones have been somewhat simplistic in their design once you got past the outer casing.
This cryptic quote could be alluding to a new, thinner or even complete redesign of the external casing currently seen on the iPhone 4. Not only would this be a huge relief to anyone who’s ever experienced first-hand the woes of owning a smartphone made almost entirely of glass, but it also raises some interesting questions.
Many in the tech industry have been hypothesising that the next gen of iPhones will follow the example of the iPhone 3GS. That is, there will be noticeable improvements over the previous gen, but ultimately nothing ground-breaking will be seen hardware-wise. Apple’s own focus this year on iOS5 and iCloud seemed to back these claims up, as it was thought unlikely that Apple would dump so much of its resources on software while simultaneously working on revolutionary hardware upgrades as it did with the iPhone 4.
Now the possibility of an ‘iPhone 4S’ has been challenged by this simple statement. We saw that between the iPhone 3G and 3GS models there was no redesign externally and little-to-no redesign internally. If there was to be an iPhone 4S would it not follow a similar pattern? A major redesign in external casing could be hinting that an entirely new device, rather than a merely upgraded one, could be heading our way.
This is, of course, all pure speculation. It’s entirely possible that Apple actually listened to its numerous customer complaints about the delicacy of the iPhone 4 design and has come up with a new casing for an iPhone 4S. It is also possible that an upgraded version of the iPhone 4 is coming with the exact same casing, but it is difficult to fit its internal hardware in to the same space as its predecessor. Lastly, but not least, this could all just be one more rumour in the giant cluster of hopes, dreams and whispered half-truths that is the Apple marketing machine.
Whatever the next gen of iPhone turns out to look like, both physically and on a specs sheet, is still anyone’s guess. But it’s starting to look more and more certain that we’ll be seeing one sometime around September or October.
Here’s hoping.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Find a better phone plan
Thousands of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
Related Articles
Find Better Phones and Plans
Hundreds of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
