iPhone 5 release date arrives as Samsung share slips, Nokia cuts jobs

If Apple is worried about the iPhone 4S juggernaut losing momentum before it can get around to launching the iPhone 5, some of its competitors are doing their best to make Apple’s life easier by falling on challenging times themselves. Even as Apple’s biggest dilemma in 2012 thus far appears to give the iPhone 5 a fall release date to give the 4S a full year in the spotlight or a summer release date to get the iPhone back on track with summer rollouts, rival Samsung has lost its brief spot atop the smartphone sales pyramid and Nokia is slashing jobs the thousands as it attempts to right itself. The iPhone 4S, despite looking suspiciously similar to its predecessor and initially met with disappointment for not being an iPhone 5, went on to help Apple carve out significant smartphone marketshare gains in the fourth quarter despite only having been on the market for half of it. Most of those gains came at the expense of Android and BlackBerry…

BlackBerry maker RIM is struggling to keep up with its much larger competitors, and has been steadily losing marketshare for years. The company recently anointed a new CEO in an attempt to turn things around, but no tangible results have been yielded from the move yet. The Android platform had been collectively gaining marketshare, but peaked with its one percent growth in the third quarter of 2011 and went into sharp marketshare decline in the fourth quarter when the iPhone 4S launched. Although Android sales grew in the quarter, they grew at such a significantly slower rate than that of the iPhone that they lost fourteen percent marketshare. That slide cost Samsung its perch as the number one smartphone hardware manufacturer; the company has since attempted to strike back by advertising a five and a half inch “phone” which uses a stylus during the Super Bowl to a confused public. Meanwhile Nokia is attempting to regain smartphone relevance through a partnership with Microsoft to run Windows Phone 7 on Nokia phones, but WP7 only accounts for about one percent of the smartphone market and Nokia is cutting jobs while it waits to see whether the Microsoft partnership can save it. All of this comes as Apple gears up to launch the iPhone 5 sometime this year…

The release of the iPhone 5 would seem to be one which could solidify smartphone momentum in Apple’s favor, but the company does face challenges. While longtime exclusive iPhone carrier AT&T has since had to learn how to share with Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S models, Apple has still failed to ink a deal with T-Mobile as the nation’s fourth largest carrier continues to look for a buyer. Apple also failed to meet initial inventory demands with both its iPhone 2 and iPhone 4 products, the latter having been due to the difficulty in manufacturing the newly redesigned hardware. With the iPhone 5 expected to offer a new hardware design of its own, Apple must take care to manufacture sufficient inventory so as to keep up with customer demand – which based on the momentum behind the iPhone 4S during its first few months on the market, could be unprecedented. Apple does have a fallback in that upon the release date of the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S will likely remain on the market at a reduced price. This will help ensure that any new iPhone customers who are unable to get their hands on an iPhone 5 unit will at least have the opportunity to buy a 4S instead. But that would mean reduced margins for Apple, which would prefer that customers opt for the full priced flagship iPhone 5. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

WWDC: iPhone 5 June release date likely despite 2011 iPhone 4S failure

by Bill Palmer

“Given the extreme let-down and rumor-mill that was provided false on October 4th, how can you be so certain that this summer will be the release time of the iPhone 5 at the WWDC?” One skeptical Beatweek reader poses the question amid our prediction (and that of others) that the iPhone 5 will see its release date as soon as this summer. And it’s a fair question: Apple whiffed mightily on the iPhone 5 in 2011, first by letting the traditional twelve iPhone upgrade window come and go in the summer by not making a move, and then by only managing to come up with an iPhone 4S in the fall. Why should Apple now be trusted to deliver the iPhone 5 in a timely fashion in 2012? The answer, as it turns out, is a rather simple one…

When Apple failed to launch the iPhone 5 last fall, it didn’t go back to square one. Although it now must leave the iPhone 4S in the spotlight for a certain amount of time in order to save face and keep from giving its early-adopter users whiplash, the fact is that the iPhone 5 was almost ready to go last fall – and that was several months ago. It wouldn’t be shocking if the iPhone 5 is ready to ship right now, but Apple can’t get away with launching it a mere four months after the 4S. Moreover, the company must gear up to launch the new iPad first, which is expected to happen in March. The fact that the iPhone 4S is setting sales records and stealing significant marketshare from competitors means that Apple isn’t under extreme pressure to get the iPhone 5 out the door. But there’s no reason to believe it’ll sit on the iPhone 5 all the way until the fall, with the exception of one thing which could throw a monkey wrench in the works…

Best as anyone can piece it together, iOS 5 was intended to be the operating system for the iPhone 5. When it became clear that the iPhone 5 wasn’t happening, Apple apparently took whatever iPhone 5 features it could (A5 processor, improved camera mechanism) and stuffed inside the iPhone 4 body shell in order to create the iPhone 4S. That left iOS 5 as the new operating system for the iPhone 4S by default. When Apple launches the iPhone 5 this year, it’s not clear whether the company will attempt to include a fully revamped iOS 6 with it or whether it’ll instead go with an intermediary iOS 5.5 to accommodate the new hardware without completely rewriting the book. Apple’s decision in this department will dictate how much lead time it needs ahead of the iPhone 5 launch, as third party app developers must be involved in beta-testing any new operating system in advance of its release. If Apple goes the quick route on the iOS side, there’s no reason it can’t launch the iPhone 5 as soon as it wants. Expect Apple to use its June WWDC conference as a natural launching pad for the iPhone 5, thereby getting the iPhone back on track as a traditionally summer-released product and capitalizing on the marketshare gains made by the iPhone 4S before it loses momentum. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Sprint iPhone 5 release date marks LTE turning point vs Verizon, AT&T

by Bill Palmer

Apple’s new iPhone 5 will mark the company’s entrance into 4G LTE networking when it reaches its release date this summer, and it’ll serve as a report card for not only the tower-building efforts of Verizon and AT&T but also the future of Sprint in general. Sprint essentially bet the company late last year on a deal with Apple which allowed it to get in on the iPhone juggernaut but placed the carrier in the position of having to eat a massive dollar amount in upgrade subsidies up front in the hope that it would be able to lure enough new customers away from AT&T and Verizon that it can make up the revenue in monthly increments going forward. And with Sprint currently dead last in the LTE wars among the three remaining carriers (T-Mobile’s adrift status leaves it unclassifiable for now), the carrier faces a turning point when Apple releases the iPhone 5 this year and officially kicks off the 4G LTE era…

The only clear winner thus far in the iPhone 4S era is Apple itself. By launching a new iPhone on all three major carriers for the first time, Apple finally gave consumers what they’d been asking for – iPhone carrier choice – and has benefited greatly from it. The iPhone gained nearly twenty marketshare points in the fourth quarter of last year, taking customers away from the rival Android and BlackBerry platforms which both lost significant marketshare in that same timeframe. But which of the three U.S. iPhone carriers is “winning” is another matter. The iPhone 4S is the most popular smartphone on each of the three carriers, but the battle between those carriers may not be decided until the iPhone 5 era. The twelve to twenty month upgrade eligibility cycle means that most Verizon and especially Sprint customers haven’t yet even been eligible to buy an iPhone at standard pricing; the real payoff for Apple’s carrier expansion will come as of the iPhone 5 release date, when those who’ve been forced to wait to buy their first iPhone will finally make their move. And with 4G LTE shaping up to be the defining feature of the iPhone 5 (along with its increased screen size), the three carriers are in a race to meet Apple at the starting block…

Despite heavy promotion from Verizon and AT&T, the 4G LTE era has thus far been a failure. Verizon’s LTE towers only cover a fraction of its users, AT&T’s towers cover a much smaller fraction of its users, and buyers of 4G LTE phones have found that their battery life is stunningly short thanks to the oversized, power hungry first generation LTE antennas built in. Moreover consumers have favored the iPhone 4S, which shuns 4G LTE altogether, even as marketshare of the LTE-heavy Android platform drops severely. In other words, the 4G LTE era won’t begin until Apple says so, and that’ll be with the launch of the iPhone 5 with its presumed second-generation low power LTE antenna. By that time Verizon may or may not have finished its LTE nationwide network, while AT&T almost certainly won’t. Sprint is caught in the tricky position of having built a 4G nationwide network based on a slower protocol that’s about one-fifth as fast as that of 4G LTE (Sprint’s 4G is often derided as “fake 4G” or “pseudo 4G”) and must now replace the entire network with 4G LTE if it wants to be on board with the iPhone 5 – unless it can convince Apple to build a separate Sprint iPhone 5 which uses Sprint’s slower alternate 4G network, which is possible but unlikely. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Valentine’s Day: iPhone 5 June release date makes iPhone 4S safe gift

by Bill Palmer

Those thinking of giving their loved one an iPhone as a Valentine’s Day gift but concerned about the impending release date for the iPhone 5 needn’t worry. The product won’t surface until this summer at the earliest, with the fall a possibility. That means that buying an iPhone 4S in mid February ensures your sweetheart will have the current-generation iPhone for at least four months or so. Such a purchase will lock your significant other out of moving to the iPhone 5 when it does launch, as carriers tend to only allow customers to buy one new phone at advertised pricing every twelve, eighteen, or twenty months; AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint each have their own policies regarding upgrade pricing and the only way to circumvent it is to pay a couple hundred dollars above sticker price to upgrade early. But you can put to bed any fear that an iPhone 4S purchased now and wrapped up for February 14th will be an outdated product by the time it’s unwrapped. However, signs are surfacing that the iPhone 5 release date is not that far away..

For Apple’s part, the iPhone 5 was supposed to have arrived last summer. Delays (for still unconfirmed reasons) led Apple to ultimately release the iPhone 4S last fall in order to buy time. The 4S has since gone on to set sales records and ignite iPhone marketshare, leading some to predict that Apple wouldn’t be in any hurry to replace it with the iPhone 5. However, reports from factories have the iPhone 5 already on site in prototype form (actually multiple prototypes, likely intended to keep everyone guessing) and there’s buzz that it’ll debut at Apple’s WWDC conference in June with a release date not long after…

Observers have pinned various supposed specs and features to the iPhone 5, from 4G LTE networking to a four-plus inch screen to a quad core A6 internal processor. Some T-Mobile customers are hoping the iPhone 5 also marks the expansion of the iPhone to their preferred carrier, after the previously AT&T-only iPhone expanded to Verizon with the iPhone 4 and to Sprint with the iPhone 4S. While the iPhone 5 could indeed arrive as soon as June, it won’t arrive any sooner. Apple typically reserves the spring for the launch of its latest iPad lineup. So while buying an iPhone 4S as a Valentine’s Day gift doesn’t ensure it’ll stay current all year (it won’t), it does buy you at least a few months of currentness. And even after the iPhone 5 debuts, the iPhone 4S will likely stick around as a second-tier iPhone model, meaning you won’t have to explain to your sweetheart why his or her four month old iPhone just got discontinued altogether. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Super Bowl: iPhone 5 June release date likely with Galaxy Note potshot

by Bill Palmer

The upcoming release date for the iPhone 5 just took on new meaning for Apple after rival Samsung took a bizarre potshot at the company with a Super Bowl ad today for its new Android-based Galaxy Note product. Samsung’s Note is one of the more odd consumer tech products to come to market in some time, as its 5.3 inch screen makes it too big to be a smartphone (although it’s equipped as one) and too small to be a tablet – and the device inexplicably comes with a stylus for screen input. But the specifics of Samsung’s oddball new Android product stood out less today than the fact that the entire ninety second ad was designed as a stab at Apple and its customers. The clip depicted customers standing in front of an Apple Store being lured into trying out the Galaxy Note instead, which suddenly turns them into more interesting and outgoing people. The implication is that Apple customers are boring sheep, and it’s one which likely has Apple ready to shove the iPhone 5 down Samsung’s throat as soon as it can muster up a release date. That means June at the WWDC conference, which marks a return to summer iPhone launch dates…

Apple has already launched a worldwide campaign aimed at getting Samsung’s copycat products like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (which is indecipherable from the iPad with the screen turned off) and the Galaxy S2 (a slightly less blatant ripoff of the iPhone 4) removed from the market due to patent violations. The Galaxy Note doesn’t appear to directly rip off any of Apple’s products – maybe someone should give circa 1999 Palm a call – but the implication on the part of Samsung that Apple users are sheep isn’t a new one. Years ago, Samsung launched an “iSheep” campaign aimed at convincing iPod users that they were idiots and should move to a Samsung MP3 player instead. The campaign met with widespread criticism and was quickly shelved. Today’s ad, which simultaneously attempted to promote the already-launched Galaxy Note and to chastise users of Apple products, felt like a shot below the belt (even for two companies trying to destroy each other in the courts) and may motivate Apple, whose late CEO Steve Jobs already considered Android to be a “stolen product” and declared his intent to destroy it, to take more aggressive measures against Samsung. The most aggressive move Apple could make would be to launch the iPhone 5 this summer as opposed to waiting until the fall like it did last year with the iPhone 4S…

The move would allow the iPhone, which began taking significant U.S. marketshare away from Android in 2011 after it finished expanding to multiple carriers (the iPhone gained about twenty percent marketshare in Q4 while Android collectively lost about fourteen percent, according to Nielsen), to move the dial even faster without leaving any time for the iPhone 4S to grow old and sales to fall off. Apple is in a unique position to give the iPhone 5 a release date as early in 2012 as it wants, as it was supposed to have launched last year and is rumored to already be ready to go. In the mean time the iPhone 4S serves as a placeholder, one which is taking marketshare away from Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy phones even as Samsung spends millions of dollars making fun of Apple users during the Super Bowl. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 a no-show in Super Bowl 2012 ads after 2011 iPhone 4S fiasco

by Beatweek Staff

The iPhone 5 won’t be making its debut during a Super Bowl ad today, for the simple reason that its release date schedule is has always been a summer (or in last year’s case fall) affair. Apple has said nothing thus far about the next generation iPhone, and won’t be making any public declarations until the iPhone 5 is, at most, weeks away from being ready to ship. Last year’s Super Bowl was a notable exception, for more than one reason. Although the iPhone 4 debuted on longtime carrier AT&T in the summer of 2010, it didn’t find its way to rival Verizon until exclusivity ended with the start of the 2011 year. Verizon decided to make a splash by running a Verizon iPhone 4 commercial during the 2011 Super Bowl, complete with its ubiquitous “Can you hear me now?” man. However, the audio for the ad went south just as he was delivering the punchline, leaving viewers wondering if it was a poor attempt at humor. Ultimately the ad ran again later in the same game, perhaps the network’s attempt to compensate Verizon for the initial fiasco. While Apple won’t be airing iPhone 5 ads today, the iPhone may still make a rousing showing during the big game…

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have all been running ads touting their iPhone 4S experience as being the superior one. Those ads may carry into today’s Super Bowl, as the carriers fight for pieces of the rapidly growing iPhone marketshare pie (the iPhone gained nearly twenty marketshare points in the fourth quarter of 2011 at the expense of the popular Android and flagging BlackBerry platforms) and the Super Bowl is an ideal place for carriers to establish that they are in fact “the” iPhone carrier of choice. Apple benefits greatly from this exposure, as carriers end up promoting the iPhone at their own expense in the name of attempting to lure iPhone users into changing customers. Such competition didn’t exist for the first three-plus years of the iPhone era, at least in the United States, as Apple had locked itself into an exclusive deal with AT&T which was supposed to last five years. The deal was generally viewed as unpopular by consumers, and Apple managed to bring the deal to an early end at the start of 2011; the iPhone found its way to Verizon shortly thereafter and to Sprint with the launch of the iPhone 4S late last year. All three carriers will offer the iPhone 5 as of its release date later this year, with T-Mobile being the only wildcard as the carrier still seeks a buyer and is unlikely to enter into any major new deals with Apple or any other phone manufacturer in the mean time. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 release date: waterproofing on table with A6, bigger screen

by Bill Palmer

The iPhone 5 could go waterproof alongside more standard new features like a larger screen and a faster A6 internal processor when it reaches its release date later this year. One of the hits of this year’s CES trade show was the pair of companies showing off iPhone 4S units which had been waterproofed by a process which was ultimately undetectable until the booth reps began dunking iPhones into fish tanks with no damage. Now there’s buzz that the feature could become standard on the new iPhone 5, although as usual Apple has nothing to say about the matter and has thus far declined to acknowledge that a next generation iPhone is even in the works. However, the device’s release date isn’t that difficult to figure out and much of its feature set is already predictable…

Each year Apple releases a new iPad in the spring with a new next-generation low power internal processor inside it that’s faster than the last, and then that same chip finds its way into the new iPhone later that year. It was the A4 in 2010, the dual core A5 last year, and it should be the quad core A6 this year. Unless Apple has fallen behind on its in-house processor development, the iPhone 5 should be the second Apple product to employ the A6 after the iPad 3 launches this spring. The screen of the iPhone 5 is also expected to grow to more than four inches. Although it’s already the highest resolution screen found on any phone, some consumers are now balking thanks to the fact that some competing smartphones offer screens which are physically larger (albeit with a lower resolution). That puts the onus on Apple to deliver an iPhone 5 whose screen is physically larger but maintains at least the same resolution. Then there’s the matter of when the new iPhone will land…

With the iPhone 4S setting sales records and taking marketshare away from both of its two largest competing platforms, Apple isn’t necessarily under any pressure (for now) to get the iPhone 5 out the door. However, the iPhone 5 was originally supposed to launch last summer, making it a long overdue product and leaving the iPhone 4S serving as the longest stand-in in recent memory. If it’s feeling ambitious, Apple will push the iPhone 5 out the door this summer in order to make up for lost time. Otherwise it’ll wait until the fall before giving the iPhone 5 a release date, allowing the iPhone 4S to have a full year in the sun before turning it into the bargain iPhone model. We’ll just have to wait to find out whether it’s indeed waterproof. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 June release date means upgrade fiasco for AT&T, Verizon users

by Bill Palmer

The iPhone 5 will see its release date in June, according to too many sources to count at this point. And while that’s good news for those who have been hoping the new iPhone would arrive sooner than later, it brings a whole new round of upgrade eligibility issues for Verizon and AT&T customers who are already in the iPhone family. AT&T’s policies allow iPhone users to become eligible for upgrade pricing either twelve or eighteen months after their last iPhone purchase, depending on a complicated formula which includes factors such as the size of your monthly bill and the last time you made a late payment. The iPhone 4S arrived late last year, meaning that by June of 2012 it’ll only have been on the market for eight to nine months. For the first time ever, literally no one in the United States who bought the current iPhone will be able to buy the iPhone 5 on its release date for advertised pricing. The story doesn’t get any better for Verizon customers…

The Verizon iPhone 4 launched in the spring of 2011, eight months after its AT&T iPhone 4 counterpart. Verizon’s standard upgrade eligibility policy is at twenty months, meaning that no one who bought the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S from Verizon will be able to buy the iPhone 5 at standard pricing when it launches either. So just who will be buying the iPhone 5 on its release date? That group will consist of AT&T iPhone 4 users who bought early enough to be upgrade eligible by this summer, iPhone 3GS users who arguably should have upgraded awhile ago, and those BlackBerry and Android users who’ve decided to make the switch but have been waiting for the iPhone 5 to land before making the jump. Those who bought an iPhone 4S at launch, or who bought the iPhone 4 late enough in the game that they won’t be eligible either, will be facing a financial fiasco when it comes to the iPhone 5…

The simplest move is to simply stick with what they have. Apple typically releases its new iPhone system software for free to users of the previous two generations, and if history holds up, most of the new software features will work on the iPhone 4S while some of them will be enabled on the slower iPhone 4. So those users who aren’t upgrade eligible will at least be able to partake in some of Apple’s new circa-2012 iPhone features. Another move is to wait until upgrade eligibility arrives and then pounce on the iPhone 5. It won’t be on launch day, but it’ll happen at some point during the iPhone 5 era for all existing iPhone users. The aggressive play is to buy the iPhone 5 on its release date and pay the $200-$250 overage fee, but then sell your existing iPhone in an online auction where it’ll fetch way more than its sticker price and more than cover the overage fee (for instance, an iPhone 4 still sells for more than $300 on eBay). Finally, there’s the play in which you call up AT&T or Verizon and threaten to switch to the other unless they move up your eligibility date to match the release date of the iPhone 5. We’ve seen it work, so long as you’re not more than a few months away from being upgrade eligible to begin with. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5: WWDC brings June release date with 4 inch screen size, NFC

by Beatweek staff

The when, the where, and the what of the iPhone 5 are increasingly taking shape as 2012 moves forward. All without a peep from Apple, tidbits are emerging from various corners: the “when” and “where” looks to be an introduction at Apple’s WWDC conference in June followed by a release date shortly thereafter, at least optimistically. The “what” is still a somewhat murky picture, but pieces of the puzzle are emerging unofficially. The iPhone 5 looks to be moving to a larger screen of four inches or more, in contrast with every previous iPhone which has sported the same 3.5 inch screen size. What benefit a physically larger screen might offer is another matter, as the iPhone 4S already has by far the highest density screen of any smartphone; physically larger competing phones have a lower resolution and must be held so far away from ones eyes in order to be seen clearly that their screens are effectively smaller than the current one on the iPhone. But perception often rules the day, and the current iPhone looks so much smaller than competing phones that Apple appears to be giving in to customer perception by giving the iPhone 5 a physically larger screen to match its already-superior density. The other hotly touted iPhone 5 feature, NFC or the digital wallet, may also be a matter of perception…

The banking billboards promoting “Google Wallet” on Android are pervasive, even as it’s nearly impossible to locate any Android users who are actually putting the feature to good use. It remains a mystery as to whether NFC, which allows a smartphone to be swiped as a way of paying via credit or debit card without actually needing to involve a plastic card, will take off in the mainstream. But it’s being hyped so heavily that Apple may have no choice but to get on board with its own “iWallet” or some such. If Apple’s NFC implementation is seamless enough, it could ultimately take the concept mainstream in a manner in which Google Wallet has thus far struggled to. Or the whole thing could be a much-hyped flop. But amid hectic competition from the Android platform, Apple may not be able to afford to take that chance with the iPhone 5. The same goes for 4G LTE, which has thus far largely been a bust thanks to oversized antennas, pitiful battery life on LTE-enabled phones, and the majority of Americans unable to get an LTE signal in their area to begin with. Apple has thus far avoided 4G LTE like the plague, but may have to dive in with the iPhone 5 whether it’s the technically sound move or not. Either way, it’s increasingly sounding like Apple will unveil these features at WWDC in June…

At least that’s Apple’s optimistic target, based on what’s supposedly leaked out of the company of late. Last year we learned that Apple’s summer iPhone launch goals don’t always happen. Then again, the iPhone 5 which was supposed to launch last summer will have had a nearly two-year development cycle if it launches the device in June 2012; Apple’s last all-original new iPhone was the iPhone 4 back in June of 2010. That device also launched at WWDC, which is technically a developer conference but its keynote address has been intermittently used for mainstream consumer hardware launches over the years. If Apple does launch the iPhone 5 at WWDC, it would need to unveil the device’s new operating system (iOS 6 or perhaps an interstitial iOS 5.5) well in advance so third party app developers can use it as a guide heading into the iPhone 5 era. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 release date: bigger screen, faster A6 chip, better gaming

by Brandon Tucker

With the iPhone 5 release date coming near one begins to speculate on its up coming features. One of the more prominent rumors is that the iPhone 5 will have a larger screen, giving it a more competitive edge against Android and Windows Phone 7. In our current phone market most of the new Android phones have a 4” or larger screen. Apple can only keep its customers happy for so long with a measly 3.5” screen. Although the retina display does bring impressively sharp graphics, the small size of it makes playing games, reading books or browsing the web hard to handle over long periods of time. Yes, I know that’s what the iPad is for, but the competition is doing this on their phones! Look at the Samsung Note, it’s 5.3” from corner to corner…

Once Apple brings a larger display format to the table we can expect some excellent gaming with less fatigue from eyestrain. Not only that but Apple will finally have a comparable screen in a market that’s saturated with large screens. Now we all know that Apple doesn’t have any issues with sales, but with a screen as smell as 3.5” it definitely makes it a setback in the multimedia department.

The iPhone is such a big player in mobile tech that developers are always striving to bring higher quality games & apps to the market. With the arrival of a larger screen and a more powerful Quad-Core A6 chip we can expect graphics that can rival current generation consoles. We can also expect to see more ports from the older consoles as well (We already got GTA3), along with a newer generation of handheld games. A larger screen can have great benefits with on screen controls, pushing controls further out creating higher visibility while maintaining a better field of vision…

Now there are some downsides to this, if Apple goes with a Quad-Core chip, a larger screen, and perhaps 4G/LTE the battery will be taking a massive hit. iPhones are known for excellent battery life, but with all the propaganda the iPhone 4s got from its battery woes we can only expect Apple to continue to take small steps, and only trickle out a few small updates at a time. One can only hope for all of the above, but all these improvements come at a cost and Apple usually doesn’t like to pay. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 release date: WWDC in summer 2012 makes for ambitious rollout

by Bill Palmer

The iPhone 5 will see its release date at Apple’s WWDC developers conference in June of this year, according to scattered claims. Like clockwork, these claims crop up each year. And just as predictably, they usually turn out to be incorrect. Apple has come to favor introducing its new mainstream consumer hardware products at one-off press events in which it introduces the event strictly for invited press, sometimes with a live feed online to the outside world. Nonetheless, the geek tech press invariably predicts that WWDC will be the launch point despite the fact that it’s a developer event (not a press event) and seemingly makes little sense for such a launch. The geek headline writers who spread these rumors appear to be basing them primarily on wishful thinking, as WWDC represents the center of the Apple geek universe despite not being on the radar of any Apple users outside the geekosphere. But then Steve Jobs went and proved the geeks right by introducing the iPhone 4 at WWDC in 2010. Now, when those same geeks claim they’ve heard that the iPhone 5 will see its introduction at WWDC in the summer of 2012 with a release date shortly thereafter, the world must at least pay attention…

Launching the iPhone 5 in early summer would represent an ambitious comeback for the iPhone hardware calendar, after a rough 2011. iPhone sales are at an all time high and the iPhone is currently taking significant marketshare away from its primary competitors (source: Nielsen), but it comes amid a stretch in which the iPhone 4S debuted as a critical disappointment for being to similar to the iPhone 4 before it, and that came after the iPhone 4 had lingered in the flagship role for nearly a year and a half. A new WWDC iPhone 5 would mean Apple is delivering the newly redesigned iPhone a mere eight or nine months after the iPhone 4S debuted. The 4S would of course stick around as a bargain model (most likely priced at the current iPhone 4 price of $99) while the iPhone 4 could slide into the free-with-contract role currently occupied by the iPhone 3GS. The latter has only been available on AT&T, so the move would mark the first time in which Verizon and Sprint would be offering a “free” iPhone model. The debate as to whether Apple will give the iPhone 5 a release date in the summer or the fall is based on the fact that the first four iPhones each shipped in the summer, while the 4S arrived last fall. Some expect the iPhone 5 to mark a return to summer iPhone launches, while others believe the iPhone 4S will get a full twelve months in the spotlight before Apple tries to outdo itself with the 5. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Protest: iPhone 5, iPad 3 release dates challenged by labor petition

by Bill Palmer

The expected release dates for the iPad 3 this spring and the iPhone 5 this summer or fall are being challenged by a group which has launched a petition in protest of the way in which Apple’s overseas factory laborers are treated. The workers typically face low pay, long hours, and inhumane working conditions. Apple doesn’t own the factories in question, but oversees the Apple products being assembled there. Lack of workplace regulations in those nations means that the labor conditions, while often deplorable, are legal locally – even though they wouldn’t be in the United States. The protest group is specifically targeting Apple despite the fact that nearly all of its competitors use the same factories with the same labor conditions. But the iPhone and iPad are the most recognizable consumer tech products on the market, and Apple is the largest company in its market, placing it at the forefront of the issue in the eyes of those who find the workplace conditions unacceptable. The group is calling on Apple to manufacture the upcoming iPad 3 and iPhone 5 under reformed conditions, arguing that cash-rich Apple can afford to invest in labor improvements. Whether Apple takes heed or not, it won’t hold up the release date of the new iPhone or the new iPad…

What new Apple CEO Tim Cook opts to do on this issue is anyone’s guess. From a fiduciary standpoint it’s difficult to imagine Apple willingly taking the financial hit required in order to pay the workers more and redesign the factories so that the job is less harmful to them when none of Apple’s competitors is likely to immediately follow. But with around a hundred billion dollars in cash on hand, Apple is in a unique position to lower its margins in the name of doing the right thing for laborers, which it could in turn use as a marketing advantage. If the new iPhone 5 and iPad 3 are being assembled under humane working conditions but a competing product like the Droid RAZR or the Samsung Galaxy S2 is being built in a sweatshop, Apple can make sure the public is aware of it. Whether enough of the public will ultimately care is another issue. The only way to force all U.S. tech companies to take the steps required to end deplorable labor conditions would be to pass laws requiring any goods sold in the U.S. but manufactured overseas to be held to the same workplace standards as if they had been assembled in the United States…

In the mean time it’s unlikely that any action would be taken by Apple prior to the launch of the iPad 3, which should go into production any day ahead of a spring release date. The iPhone 5 could arrive in the summer or fall, depending on a number of factors. If Apple opts to overhaul its factory labor conditions prior to that time, it still shouldn’t hold up the launch of the device. Previous bottlenecks in Apple’s manufacturing ability have generally been a result of component shortages or overwhelming demand. It’s Tim Cook’s call, and if he takes action it’ll cost his company significant cash and margins but could ultimately turn out to be a wise business decision. Either way, it won’t hold up production or push back the release date for the iPad 3 or the iPhone 5. Here’s more on the iPad 3. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 release date delivers bigger screen, leftover iPad features

by Bill Palmer

When the iPhone 5 hits its release date, plenty about the new device will look familiar as it’ll have already debuted a season or two earlier on the new iPad. It’s nearly a given that the new iPhone will offer a larger screen. But aside from that, it’ll be looking to big brother for inspiration as usual. Apple’s history shows that with the exception of each new version of the iOS operating system debuting alongside the latest iPhone, it’s the iPad which tends to see Apple’s new mobile features first. Back in the spring of 2010 the original iPad debuted with squared off brushed metal sides and Apple’s then-new A4 internal processor. A few months later the iPhone 4 debuted with the same squared off sides and the same A4 inside. Last year the iPad 2 debuted with the A5 processor and then later in the year the iPhone 4S launched with the A5. This spring the iPad 3 will land with a slate of new features and body style changes, and it’s a good bet that when the iPhone 5 sees its release date in the summer or the fall, it’ll adopt many of the same traits. So just what can we expect?

The iPad 2 came with newly tapered sides, which were probably also intended for the 2011 iteration of the planned iPhone 5 which was never released. If the iPad 3 retains that look, it’ll strongly suggest that the 2012 iPhone 5 will offer the same. The same goes for the A6 quad-core processor. The new iPad will also likely be Apple’s first foray into 4G LTE networking, as the iPad is a large enough device to house a physically bulky LTE antenna and a large enough battery to power it. Whether that’ll filter down to the iPhone 5 is a matter of whether it can be designed to run on a sufficiently small amount of power so as to keep the iPhone 5 from being physically bulky. If the new iPad shifts away from the black and white hued offerings to different colors or an all-metal look, expect the iPhone 5 to do the same. As secretive as Apple is about these things, its history of being pattern-driven often gives away its next moves in advance. And while a litany of question marks currently surround the iPhone 5, the questions will become a whole not narrower once the iPad 3 reaches its release date. Here’s more on the iPad 3. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 summer release date = iOS 5.5 and low power LTE, not iOS 6

by Bill Palmer

The iPhone 5 will depend on the rise of a low power LTE antenna and an interstitial iOS 5.5 operating system if it sees its release date this summer instead of the fall. For those wishing the iPhone 5 would hurry up and arrive as soon as possible, a summer launch may not be quite what they were bargaining for. Apple requires significant advance seeding for an entirely new iteration of iOS (the comparatively minor iOS 5.1 is now in its third beta with more to come), meaning that iOS 6 testing would need to commence very shortly if it is to be ready for a summer iPhone 5 launch. More likely would be that a summer iPhone 5 would come with a less ambitious iOS 5.5 operating system, which Apple would hand-wave by pointing to the fact that the iPhone 5 would be arriving a mere eight or nine months after iOS 5.0 debuted with the iPhone 4S late last year. But that’s not the only potential compromise an early arriving iPhone 5 might have to make, and the LTE issue may not be under Apple’s control…

The singular reason the iPhone 4S doesn’t have built in 4G LTE is that current 4G LTE antennas are physically large and draw a significant amount of power. Building a 4G LTE phone correctly would require making it very thick to accommodate not only the antenna but the massive battery power required to power it while providing acceptable battery life. Some manufacturers have gone ahead and made average-sized 4G LTE enabled smartphones, but their battery life has been almost comically short, prompting widespread complaints from users of those phones. If the iPhone 5 is to be a normal sized phone while including LTE, it would need a new kind of LTE antenna which is smaller and runs on lower power. Such antennas are in development, but they may not happen in time for a summer iPhone 5 release date. If that’s the case, would the iPhone 5 lusters of the world accept an LTE iPhone 5 that’s oversized, or has too little battery life? Or perhaps an iPhone 5 which doesn’t employ LTE at all? In such a scenario, Apple might be more inclined to hold back the iPhone 5 to the fall in the hopes of buying more time for antenna technology to develop. On the other hand, Apple has shown a penchant for designing its own low-power internal components (the A5 processor found in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, for instance) when third party components don’t match its needs. Does Apple has a low-power LTE antenna up its sleeve? We’ll have to wait until the summer, or the fall, to find out. Here’s more on the iPad 3.

iPhone 5 release date comes after iPad 3 spring launch, iOS 5.1 update

by Bill Palmer

The release date for the iPhone 5 could be in the summer or the fall, but it won’t be in the spring – and not because it’s not ready, but because the iPad 3 simply must come first. Apple’s history shows that it prefers to launch each new iPad in March (the iPad 1 shipped in the final days of March 2010 while the iPad 2 shipped in the middle of March 2011). And whether iOS 5.1 ends up being released alongside the iPad 3 or sees the light of day sooner, it’ll have to reach the door before the iPhone 5 as well. Even if the iPhone 5 is ready to go by the spring, and even if Apple decides to ambitiously push the iPhone 5 to market well under a year after the iPhone 4S was launched, the new iPhone will simply have to wait until after the new iPad is out the door. Last year Apple learned the hard way what it likely already knew: allowing any of its flagship iDevices to go more than twelve months without a generational update will result in users holding off on purchases until that update finally happened. iPhone 4 sales fell as the device went past the year mark and backdoored itself into an eventual seventeen month reign atop the iPhone food chain before Apple finally unveiled the iPhone 4S. Accordingly, Apple must update the iPad in March in order to keep sales momentum. That means the iPad 3 will debut in March and ship no later than April. That leaves May 2012 as the earliest Apple could introduce the iPhone 5 at a press event, and June the earliest the device could see a release date…

And that’s if Apple even wants the iPhone 5 on the market so soon, not to mention the question of whether it would be ready by then. Talk of a four inch screen and a full body redesign, along with the challenge of battery-draining 4G LTE antennas, suggests that the next iPhone could represent Apple’s most ambitious new iPhone model to date. It’s been widely speculated that the iPhone 5 was supposed to arrive last summer and that its failure was the reason the iPhone 4 was left twisting in the wind for so long and why the intermediary iPhone 4S was eventually brought to market at all. Even if Apple has since solved those challenges and the iPhone 5 is ready to go, don’t expect it in the spring. Nothing says Apple has to wait until the iPhone 4S has been on the market for a full year before replacing it with a new flagship iPhone. But everything says that the iPad 3, along with iOS 5.1, must see their release dates first. Here’s more on the iPad 3. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5: summer release date depends on iOS 6, LTE tech, 4S fallout

by Bill Palmer

When plotting the release date for the iPhone 5 this year and weighing the possibility of a summer launch, Apple will need to make decisions based on the development of two technologies while keeping an eye on one essential data point. First, Apple must decide whether the iPhone 5 will feature an all-new iOS 6 operating system. Last year’s iPhone 4S release came with iOS 5, the operating system which many believed would accompany a 2011 iPhone 5 launch. Instead the 4S landed with the fifth iteration of iOS, leaving the door open for the iPhone 5 to come with a new iOS 6 or whether the potentially short upgrade cycle might be better served by an intermediary iOS 5.5 instead. Apple has yet to breathe a word regarding iOS 6, and each new iOS generation has been previewed at least a few months before its arrival on a corresponding new iPhone. Apple would need to preview iOS 6 for developers by this spring in order to ship an iPhone 5 with iOS 6 on it by this summer. If spring comes and goes without a developer debut for iOS 6, it could mean that the iPhone 5 is targeted for the fall – or it could mean that the iPhone 5 will arrive without a new-generation operating system. But that’s not the only development Apple must weigh…

Key to the launch of the iPhone 5 is the development of LTE, the so-called “real 4G” which offers speeds up to five times faster than the 4G currently offered by Sprint and T-Mobile. Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint all say they’re now fully committed to LTE, and they’ve erected towers in vastly different proportions. But none of that matters to Apple, which has taken one look at the LTE antennas currently available for use inside smartphones and decided to pass altogether. Some competing smartphones do offer LTE reception, but the antennas inside those phones are physically huge and use up the device’s battery extraordinarily quickly. Apple finds that unacceptable, and has thus far kept 4G off the iPhone altogether despite the “4″ in the name of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. If next generation LTE antennas can be developed by the summer which will allow Apple offer an LTE-enabled iPhone 5 with acceptable physical dimensions and battery life, that’ll make Apple’s release date decision easier. If LTE antennas are still a boondoggle by this summer, Apple might opt to buy time by giving the iPhone 4S a full year in the limelight and holding back the iPhone 5 until the fall. But the iPhone 4S plays into iPhone 5 plans in another manner as well…

Some analysts were expecting the iPhone 4S to tank because it wasn’t an “iPhone 5″ and was instead the same outer shell as the iPhone 4 with a few new hardware advancements stuffed inside. As it’s turned out, the iPhone 4S is breaking sales records (thanks at least in part to the fact that it’s the first iPhone to launch on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint simultaneously) and has led a surge which has the iPhone gaining double digit marketshare while the rival Android platform is losing double digit marketshare (source: Nielsen). If this trend keeps up, Apple may be in no hurry to rush the iPhone 5 with a summer 2012 release date. But if iPhone 4S sales taper off heading into the spring, Apple could feel compelled to push out the iPhone 5 by this summer in order to maintain marketshare momentum. Here’s more on the iPhone 4S. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 release date: Verizon, Sprint get post-4S leg up on AT&T

by Bill Palmer

The iPhone 5 release date marks the turning point at which iPhone newcomers Verizon and Sprint will finally gain the upper hand on original iPhone carrier AT&T, as it’ll mark the first time a truly new iPhone generation rolls out on all three carriers simultaneously. Verizon gained the iPhone 4 after it had already gone the majority of the way through its first-run life cycle, and it merely sold middlingly for the carrier. The iPhone 4S last fall saw its debut on Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T all at the same time and has seen record-breaking results on all three. But despite being officially considered the fifth generation iPhone, the 4S wasn’t a truly new iPhone iteration. According to some accounts, it wasn’t even supposed to have ever been a flagship model, having been substituted into the spotlight once it became clear to Apple that the iPhone 5 wouldn’t be ready in time for the holiday 2011 buying season. While the 4S has proven immensely popular overall, it hasn’t (aside from Siri) done much to attract those who already had an iPhone 4. That means that AT&T’s hordes of iPhone 4 users haven’t yet been in position to be picked off by Sprint or Verizon, despite arguably better offerings. That’ll all change once the iPhone 5 reaches its release date later this year…

Apple hasn’t breathed a word about the iPhone 5, and observers are divided as to whether it’ll launch in the summer or the fall (we essentially consider it to be a coin flip at this point). But it’s widely expected to a 4G LTE enabled phone, and Verizon is significantly ahead of AT&T in that regard. The 4G LTE era will result in increased data usage thanks to faster network speeds and the additional capabilities which will come along with that, and Sprint offers unlimited data to new customers even as AT&T closed that door and recently began actively harassing its existing unlimited data users. All of this opens the door for Sprint and Verizon to make a move on longtime AT&T iPhone users who are seeking greener pastures but have been waiting for the right time to switch. When the iPhone 5 sees its release date, all three carriers will begin running ads explaining why their iPhone 5 experience is the superior one. And when existing AT&T iPhone 4 users begin weighing their options, we’ll find out how big of a carrier shift the iPhone 5 release date will bring.

iPhone 5 release date: summer vs fall depends on iPhone 4S sales curve

by Bill Palmer

Word from inside Apple’s factories is that the iPhone 5 will be ready for release date when Apple wants it to be ready, as prototypes are already flying around and production is ready to commence. That means the iPhone 5′s arrival will come down to just when Apple does in fact want to spring it on the world. Until not too long ago, the answer would have seemed self evident: new iPhones launch in the summer, so keep an eye out around July 2012. But after last year’s turnabout with the iPhone 4S debuting in the fall after what most observers were certain would be a summer 2011 iPhone 5 launch, what Apple does this year is anyone’s guess. The best guess, however, centers around how well the iPhone 4S is doing in the mean time. And the good news regarding iPhone 4S sales could mean bad news for those wanting the iPhone 5 to be released sooner than later…

Recently released numbers spanning from Apple’s own quarterly report to outside statisticians like Nielsen have shown that the iPhone 4S is currently selling in a lights-out manner. In fact sales were so strong over the holiday quarter that the iPhone nearly doubled its share of smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2011. If that pace keeps up for the next quarter, it could leave Apple to conclude that there’s no huge rush to get the iPhone 5 out the door and that it would instead do well to allow the iPhone 4S to have a full twelve months in the sun. That would point to a fall 2012 release date for the iPhone 5. But if 4S sales begin to taper off as 2012 progresses, or if Apple is simply feeling ambitious, the iPhone 5 could see its release date arrive while the iPhone 4S is still in its prime. Such an arrangement would see the iPhone 5 take the $199 and up flagship sales spot, while the iPhone 4S would become the new $99 model and the iPhone 4 could become the free-with-contract option (which would finally give Apple a “free” iPhone option on Verizon and Sprint as opposed to the current free iPhone 3GS which is only available on AT&T). With the new iPad set to arrive in the spring, it would seem unlikely that the iPhone 5 would arrive prior to summer under any circumstances. Whether it ends up being summer or fall will remain open to debate. In the mean time our advice is to keep one eye on iPhone 4S sales figures at all times.

iPhone 5: release date in summer 2012 brings 4 inch screen, flat sides

by Bill Palmer

Sources inside the plant where the iPhone 5 is to be manufactured are reporting that the device is set to go into production in time for a summer 2012 release date – and its hardware will significantly shift in some ways while still retaining some physical qualities from the iPhone 4 – 4S era. The iPhone 5 is widely expected to gain 4G LTE networking, which currently exists on some competing phones but suffers from poor battery life and a lack of built-out 4G LTE networks on the part of U.S. carriers. One of the biggest question marks regarding the fifth generation iPhone is whether it will retain the same 3.5 inch screen size as the first four iterations or whether it’ll take the leap to four inches for the sake of appearances. Although the iPhone 4S has the highest resolution of any smartphone on the market, the physically larger (yet lower resolution and effectively smaller) screens on some competing phones have left some iPhone users feeling inadequate. But factory sources say that while various iPhone 5 prototypes are floating around the building and at least some of them have to be decoys, one thing they all share in common is a four inch screen…

Such a move would mark a reversal from the now legendary (yet never substantiated) story that had Steve Jobs killing the four inch iPhone 5 at the last minute because it was too large and left Apple coming up with the iPhone 4S as a last minute replacement. In addition to the four inch display, factory insiders also claim that the new iPhone will retain the flat siding of the current 4 – 4S design. That would go against widespread claims on across the internet last year that the iPhone 5 would feature curved siding in a return to the kind of body style employed on the first three iPhone generations. The same sources say that the iPhone 5 should end up seeing a summer 2012 release date based on the current state of the hardware.

iPhone 5 is sixth generation, but likely to retain “5″ moniker

by Beatweek Staff

If the iPhone 4S is the fifth generation iPhone, then what is the iPhone 5? That’s the question for Apple marketing execs to chew over from now until the device’s launch later this year, as their upcoming sixth generation smartphone has already been popularly branded “iPhone 5″ even as a handful of skeptics point out that such a moniker would be outside of standard naming conventions. Skipping to “iPhone 6″ to accurately reflect the generational number could cause even more confusion, however, as most consumers would simply wonder where the iPhone 5 went and whether Apple might be trying to pull something. Largely lost amid all this pre-launch debate is the fact that Apple has rarely adhered to iPhone generational numbers thus far…

The first iPhone was merely called “iPhone” without any numerical suffix. The second iPhone saw Apple using the name “iPhone 3G” to denote the addition of 3G networking, and then the third iPhone went with the name “3GS” which was the first time an iPhone had the correct generational number in its name – and it was essentially by mere happenstance. Not until the fourth generation iPhone did Apple finally see fit to make a point of using the correct number in the name, with the “iPhone 4″ moniker being the first time Apple used a number in an iPhone’s name without also attaching a letter. Currently Apple is employing the “iPhone 4S” name for the fifth generation model; calling it “iPhone 5″ wouldn’t have worked because the 4S is physically nearly identical to its predecessor. That leaves Apple to now decide whether the generation model should indeed be called iPhone 5. And while such a move would be flawed in a strictly logical sense, it may be a no-brainer for Apple nonetheless.

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