Introduction

Since 2007, lining up for a new iPhone has joined poolside barbecues and road trip vacations in many folks' Summertime routines. But Apple and Verizon launched a CDMA iPhone 4 this past January, prompting consumers and insiders alike to predict that the next iPhone - iPhone 5, we'll call it - will be pushed back to an early Fall launch. Whether it drops closer to Memorial Day or Labor Day, rumors are already flying about what to expect from the next generation of Apple's iconic smartphone.

4-inch Display

With the growing trend of phones sporting larger and larger display, it's almost a lock that Apple will outfit iPhone 5 with a bigger screen. Current rumors point to a 4" display with an edge-to-edge design that all but eliminates side bezels on the front of the device.

Apple A5 Processor

Dual Core Processing Power

A dual-core processor in iPhone 5 is more or less a necessity if Apple wants to keep pace with the rest of the market. Look for an Apple-designed chipset with two cores to handle high-powered multimedia and applications processing, and to keep pace with rival offerings from Nvidia, Qualcomm and Samsung.

Thinner Design

The screen gets larger but the overall design gets thinner - that's what the rumors say. Apple has long been obsessed with industrial design and making its hardware as thin as possible. iPhone 4 measures a scant 9.3mm from front to back, but seeing as Samsung just pushed the envelope with their 8.5mm thin Galaxy S II flagship phone, Apple engineers could well burning the midnight oil in order to make iPhone 5 "The world's thinnest smartphone."

8 Megapixel Camera

Apple stepped up their imaging game with iPhone 4's 5MP camera with LED flash and 720p video capture, not to mention a front-facing camera for FaceTime video calling. WIth rivals having moved on to eight megapixels and full 1080p video capture, expect iPhone 5's camera to sport flashier specs.

iOS 5.0

Even the most devoted of Apple fanboys will tell you that iOS has gotten a bit long in the tooth. Revamped notifications are at the top of most critics' lists for an operating system overhaul, and rumors about a streaming version of iTunes and other cloud-based services could point to deeper changes in the platform that powers iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch alike.

Fall Release

June and July have been the norm for iPhone releases, but rumors abound that Apple may be pushing it to September or even November this year. Why? For one, they could merge the release cycles of the AT&T and Verizon models (and maybe, just maybe, Sprint and/or T-Mobile, as well). Also, a Fall release would shift iPhone into the headlining role at Apple's Fall music event and their holiday product lineup.

Above are TechnoBuffalo's renderings of what the next iPhone might look like, based on a mix of rumors and Apple's current design language.

Comments

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