All about iPhone 5: What we know, what we wish

By Steve Lo, posted Oct 3, 2011 at 7:25 PM, 5,690 views,

All about iPhone 5: What we know, what we wish

So we all know that at 10 in the morning (Pacific Standard Time), Apple will be revealing (finally!) the new iPhone to us. What is different about this conference is that we have conflicting information from all of our sources. What we know is just a short jump past the break.

UPDATE 2: There is no iPhone 5. iPhone 5 cases are USELESS.

UPDATE: THERE WILL BE NO iPHONE 5. Apple will introduce iPhone 4S that looks like the iPhone 4. It will be available in 64GB capacity and the 64GB model has the same price point as the current 32GB iPhone 4. For the budget iPhone, it is only $49 (USD) with contract, and it comes with 8GB of storage. Please take note that international carriers can set their own prices for the iPhone, so the price range will be $49-$99. And in China, the price will be higher also because of taxes. Lastly, the teardrop device is delayed.

Alright, let’s start with what we do know.

The Budget iPhone N90A

The budget iPhone N90As found in Foxconn plant in Brazil — photo credit Gizmodo

We know that the past iPhone well lovable, had numerous issues. The most common one was the antennagate saga. The iPhone 4 was codenamed N90, and it utilized a chipset from the company Infineon. One of the new iPhones is a slight tweak to the old one. It is code named N90A. What sort of tweaks? Well first you can kiss the Infineon chipset goodbye, as well as the problem causing antenna layout. Apple is going with Qualcomm right now, and for the forseeable future. We are very sure that when that wonderful new phone gets dissected, you will see this change. We hope it is a change for the better.

Features of Budget iPhone

The N90A will have an 8GB capacity, to keep the target price low, it will replace the 3GS in Apple’s lineup. Other than that there should be little difference between the old iPhone 4 and the new N90A. Apple has had difficulty breaking into the mid to low range market. As it stand right now it is Android dominated. People familiar with the matter have indicated that not only is the revised iPhone 4 powerful, but it has an attractive price point as well. We here at M.I.C. predict that this will do wonder for Apple’s revenue gains in both our home country of China but other market’s as well.

New iPhone With A Tapered “Teardrop” Design

The best mockup created by This is my next…

Here is where it gets interesting. Everyone, and we mean everyone on our contact list is screaming about a new higher end device. We believe that it will be revealed as well. A consensus on what that might look like has been hard to pin down however. Here is what we know from our contacts within the industry.

The Specs

An iPhone with similar look to it but upgraded specs in the form of more memory, an A5 processor and an 8-megapixel camera has been spotted many times by one of our sources privy to the development of the N90A. Its codename is N94. We had mentioned the specs in our previous story back in August, when cases first started to become available.

To recap:

The new iPhone has an A5 processor as per the iPad 2 and updated graphics as well.

An allegedly leaked image showing A5 processor in the internals for the next-gen iPhone

We are aware that the parts in this are not authentic, however that doesn’t discount there is an A5 inside the iPhone. We also previously covered the white iPhone 4S seeded to developers many months back.

A white iPhone 4S mockup featuring a larger display and edge-to-edge glass

It also will have an 8-megapixel camera, and Apple finally got the battery density much higher according to our sources. The battery size has not changed, but the density and quality has been improved to a great degree.

This plate of sushi appears to have been captured at Apple HQ with an iPhone 5

Both the budget iPhone and the more powerful iPhone will have iOS 5 and we predict that with the memory amount upped to 1GB and storage capacity upped to 64GB in the higher end one.

We went hands-on with iPhone 4 64GB engineering prototype

The iPhone 4S will have some new features that the budget iPhone will not have. Also we have word from our connections within the carriers that this phone has finally done what we have wanted for so long. It is a true world phone, no longer have GSM or CDMA versions. Why is this important? It simplifies production, it means that you can get service on your CDMA phone anywhere in the world if it breaks, it means if it is unlocked you can have access to all carriers with in a region.

Will it support 4G (LTE) ?

China Unicom confirms iPhone 5 with HSPA+ “4G” support

We know it will support much higher speeds as per our story here, and here. Although talks are being undertaken by Apple, as in the United States, it will be a sort of 3G+ meaning close to 4G speeds on 3G. This is good, but what about the name for the new iPhone? Is it 4S following standard naming per Apple procedure or is it the iPhone 5?

The Leaks and Rumors

Alleged iPhone 5 touchscreens photographed at Wintek factory

We have pinned that the devices with the teardrop shape are in fact real, but have had numerous delays. Why? Its those terribly thin displays. The yield (percentage of parts that are usable) is below 85% we are told. Under Apple rules, that is not acceptable for production. We previously covered the story here.

Hands-on with iPhone 5 cases

And those cases all over the internet? Well, Apple “lost” one of it’s phones over here in Shenzhen. We covered that story here. Interestingly, one of the case manufacturers revealed that a few tens of thousands of its cases have already been shipped to the USA. We feel it could be the same for the screen protector also.

An image of an alleged iPhone 5 screen protector

We can tell you, the situation has not changed. Further, the only people on our contact list calling it the iPhone 5 are our carrier friends with China Mobile, Unicom and Telecom respectively.

A LED screen at one of the branches of China Telecom had started advertising the iPhone 5

We know China Telecom and Unicom have inked deals to sell the new phones. But we also believe China Mobile is very close too or will soon. We have had prototypes running on the network, and Tim Cook has visited also. We remind readers that China Mobile has the largest customer base in China, so Apple stands to make a lot of money out of a deal.

Wrap-up

We would love for Apple to prove us wrong on this one, but we think based on a considerate amount of research done, that the two new iPhones will be named 4S and 4. We also keep in mind, and wish you reader to also, to remember that Apple is notorious for underpromising and overdelivering on top of all the secrecy. We cannot wait for the 4th to come.