What happened to the iPhone 5?

As I'm sure you've heard, last week Apple officially announced the launch of the next generation iPhone. However, prior to the event, there had been a lot of speculation that Apple would release two new devices, an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5. This seemed plausible, due to the 15 months gap between the last iPhone and the sheer number of corroborating rumours. Instead we only got one device, the iPhone 4S, which on the outside is identical to its predecessor, but includes all new internals. So what happened to the mythical iPhone 5?

I think it’s clear that Apple had never planned to release the iPhone 5 at this time, however the number of similar rumours pointing towards a larger display and new "tear drop" design was a little difficult to ignore. It all started 6 months ago, with suggestions that Apple had lost a prototype iPhone from a Foxconn factory, of which the device specification and case design had been leaked. This prompted a number of media outlets and blogs to produce mock-ups, like the one from MacRumors shown below.

Due to the detail of the leak and the elegance of the design, everything seemed credible and even reliable industry sources such as Joshua Topolsky were reporting it as real. All of this "false evidence" seemed to validate the industries thoughts that this was indeed the iPhone 5. In fact, as a show of peoples confidence a number of case manufacturers went ahead and started creating cases based on this design.

So was there any truth in the iPhone 5 rumor? Unfortunately we will probably never know, however I believe, due to the number of corroborating rumours and their sources, that there was at least some truth. It is even possible that this was actually a prototype iPhone, as I am sure Apple are experimenting with a number of different designs and styles.

Will this be the iPhone 5? Probably not, even if this was an iPhone 5 prototype, with the release of the iPhone 4S we have to assume that it will be at least 8 months (June 2012) before Apple will announce the iPhone 5. That leaves plenty of time for additional development and design changes.

So for now we have the iPhone 4S, which itself is an amazing product and should hopefully be enough to keep people happy until the truth about the iPhone 5 is revealed.

Let's talk iPhone

Today Apple officially sent out the invitations for their highly anticipated "Next Generation" iPhone event.

Apple are expected to announce a number of new products and services at the event, specifically iOS 5.0, which has been in beta since WWDC and iCloud, which is their new integrated cloud synchronisation service for Mac OS X and iOS. However, as we already know a lot about these two items, the real star of the show will be the next generation iPhone or potentially iPhone's!

So what do I think we'll see from the new iPhone(s)? Over the past couple of months there has been a lot of wild speculation regarding whether Apple will release an iPhone 4S, an iPhone 5, or both. Personally I believe they will be releasing two new products.

I think the flagship product will be the iPhone 5, which will come with a new form factor (probably slimmer, with a tapered edge) and will of course feature a faster processor (the A5 from the iPad 2), more memory (maybe 1GB) and more interestingly a slightly larger screen (approximately 4-inch). With that said, I don't believe the hardware will be the main selling feature, in my opinion Apple will announce full voice integration (based on Nuance), allowing you to navigate your phone, send text messages, etc, all touch free (hence - Let's talk iPhone).

I think the second new product will be a modified iPhone 4, which will look essentially the same as the current model (including the screen size), but will include some minor hardware enhancements (processor, etc). I believe the unique selling point will be a new lower price, with the emphasis on emerging markets such as China. I've been predicting this strategy for a while, as it follows a similar product lifecycle to the highly successful iPod range, allowing Apple go after a new demographic and therefore rapidly expand their potential audience. If this strategy works like it did with the iPod Nano, then we could see a significant boost in iPhone sales for the Christmas period.

With that said, considering this is Apple, there is a high chance that I am completely wrong and maybe instead they will announce new printers after all. Everything will be revealed on Tuesday 4 October 2011.