The iPhone 5 News Blog

Rumors out of Asia today that Apple is commissioning components suppliers for two tweaked forms of its flawed in-cell screen technology for use in the iPhone 5S are now joined by a late-breaking sighting of what purports to be the A7 chip. The photo comes by way of gsmarena.com, who posted it as coming from “iOSDoc.” iOSDoc was unable to corroborate their source any more than assuring us that it is “very reliable.”

The article goes on to give us a bit of insight into this purported sighting of the A7:

According to the source, the number of CPU cores and amount of RAM have both been doubled, meaning the A7 chipset packs a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 2GB of RAM. The RAM clockspeed will reportedly take a hit, though – going from LPDDR2-1066 to LPDDR-800. The GPU will reportedly be PowerVR SGX554MP4 (quad-core) like in the iPad 4, up from SGX543MP3 (tri-core) in the iPhone 5.

From what I have read over the past months about what is expected from the A7, these specs seem to be in line with what the competition is offering and what hard core tech enthusiasts are expecting — particularly the upping the amount of RAM. In addition, it can be said that the rumor itself is rather safe — including the fact that we’re getting sight of the A7 on the same day that we’ve heard from Asia about in-cell display rumors ramping up.

I’ve said before on the blog that, more than any other component, the processor can be the most easily faked. I’m no Photoshop expert, but to me, it would be exceedingly easy ro superimpose an “A7″ onto a photo like this. Even more interesting is the grainyness of the photo, which puts a kind of diffuse patina onto the chip’s lettering, making it look like it has been around for quite a while.

Of course, this isn’t to say that the rumor is a fake, and the fact is, imagining the A7 in production now would fit into the developing picture that the iPhone could once again be introduced at the WWDC in June. Given that the display and processor could already be in progress, most of the iPhone 5S would also be in progress as well, since the 5S is bound to offer little if any change to the form factor or aesthetics.

As a footnote, the article mentioned that, “the tipster also mentioned that Siri will get cool new abilities in iOS 7.” It would have been nice to hear more about what these “cool, new abilities” for iOS 7 will turn out to be, but again, the notion that iPhone 5S will feature software upgrades more so than software ones rings true.

 
By Michael Nace
 

The long-awaited jailbreak for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1 is now live.

In the precious, confined, walled garden that is Apple’s product ecosphere, serious techies covet nothing more than the elusive jailbreak for their iOS devices. Giving them the ability to trick out all of Apple’s hard work at crafting the user experience (and controlling it in a bid to monetize like crazy), the jailbreak — while perhaps an annoyance to Apple on one hand, must be seen by Cupertino as a necessary evil for iOS users.

Apple, after all, characterizes their customer base as creative, free-spirited individuals, and Apple product help to empower their creativity and individualism. What better than a good jailbreak, then, to allow iPhone users to mold their favorite gadget into their own image and likeness, right?

All of that being said, the iPhone 5 / iOS 6.12 jailbreak is now live. Read More

Sales reports for the iPhone 5 continue to be conflicting, with the smartphone selling #1 in the U.S. but just #7 in the U.K.. If the iPhone is to become a product that sells well only in the U.S., how will that affect Apple’s marketing and R&D strategies?

Since the launch of the iPhone 5 in September of 2012, the sales reports for Apple’s flagship smartphone have been middling at best. After a monumental launch that saw an unprecedented number of sales, news of the iPhone 5′s sales numbers have been up and down, with booming figures being challenged by reports of reduced component orders and lackluster sales in markets outside of the U.S.

Just today, two articles about iPhone 5 sales bear out starkly different views of how the smartphone is performing. According to Forbes, the iPhone 5 is clearly #1 in smartphone sales in the U.S., cutting into all market segments and demographics. I found this quote from the article particularly interesting, in light of my piece on the Blackberry Z10 and its play for business users against the iPhone 5:

Apple continues to report widespread and eager adoption of the iPhone among the Fortune 500, while simultaneously expanding the number of countries in which its hot-selling iPhone is available, signing up more carriers, and broadening its retail presence across the globe.

For as much as the Z10 would appear to be well-positioned to reassert Blackberry among business users, the Forbes article clearly counts business professionals as just one of many segments in the U.S. where the iPhone 5 has pushed to the top of the hill in terms of sales.

And yet, in another article, we hear the exact opposite. Read More

Apple has continued to make serious inroads into the business sector with its iPhone. But Blackberry’s sleek, new Z10 seeks to offer business users hardware features that trump the iPhone 5 from a business perspective.

Business users have always been the bread and butter for Blackberry. With its iconic (or some would call “outdated”) qwerty thumb boards, their smartphone designs, while seemingly antiquated by consumer stands compared to the iPhone, Android, and Windows 8-based competitor models, continued to appeal to business professionals long after Blackberry’s designs lost total touch with pop culture. It was only over the course of the past few years that Apple and Android really started to suck up even business users from Blackberry’s market share.

With the Blackberry Z10, we see the company once again looking to penetrate the smartphone market, and while the design is decidedly channelling the iPhone 5, Blackberry will once again look to appeal to business and casual users alike. with all of that being said, how does the iPhone 5 and Blackberry Z10 stack up against one another? Read More

You’d never imagine it based on the a chorus of boos from Wall Street and financial press punditry, but Apple actually had a pretty decent fiscal 2013 first quarter, as reported in the company’s financial results conference call on Wednesday. Spectacular even, when you consider ongoing global economic turmoil, including the fiscal cliff-hanger that dominated the last third of Apple’s Q1/13 which ended December 29, 2012, and uncertainty about the U.S. debt ceiling crunch looming in the next few months.

Belying the the markets’ hysterical reaction, Apple sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter. No, it wasn’t the 50 million some forecasters had been speculating, but it amounts to a pretty impressive 29.0 percent volume increase compared to the 37.04 million iPhones Apple shipped in the year-ago Q1/12 quarter — especially with its fiscal ’13 Q1 having one fewer week of sales than the 2012 quarter. Even more impressive sales growth percentage-wise was the also record 22.9 million iPads sold in the quarter,( pretty closely matching forecasts) — up from 15.4 million units in the year-ago quarter — 48.4 percent growth from 15.43 million in Q1/12 year-over-year, or about 59.5% growth if you factor in that 14th week, compared with this year’s 13 week quarter. Not too shabby at all.

Apple didn’t provide a model breakdown analysis, so we don’t know definitively what percentage of overall category sales were attributable to the new iPhone 5 and iPad mini respectively, although the average unit selling price for iPads was down significantly, indicating that the iPad mini sold robustly through the holiday season following its October 23 introduction. Read More

A blast of mixed reports on iPhone sales today shed conflicting perspectives on how Apple’s flagship product is faring in the marketplace. And perception will determine perceived realities for the 2013 iPhone release.

Today’s news of recent iPhone sales in the U.S. is complex at best, with a series of conflicting reports painting contradictory perspectives on how the iPhone is holding up against its rival OS Android and smartphone designer Samsung. After a widely-reported study which shows that Samsung beat out Apple in the smartphone sales race in 2012, a new report has surfaced, demonstrating impressive market share for the iPhone in the fourth quarter of 2012, with the iPhone 5 of course doing the heavy lifting. Read More

For more than two years, the iPhone 5 remained at the height of buzz and anticipation in the tech community. However, the fever pitch to which the iPhone 5′s hype ascended to appears to be falling just as fast.

News of flagging iPhone sales in itself is not a surprise for those who follow iPhone news and rumors: as the excitement and anticipation over a new iPhone ratchets up, current iPhone sales ratchet down. It is the bitter end of a bitter-sweet effect that Apple enjoys from its frenetic and often fanatical following from both the tech media and its customers. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook has admitted in interviews that the buzz of yet-to-come products is a palpable part of the revenue cycle that Cupertino has come to expect when planning their release schedules.

However, no one would have ever guessed that after just a few months on the market, the iPhone 5 would already see a sharp downward trend in sales demand, prompting Apple to significantly scale back component orders. Could this market condition spur on Apple to release the iPhone 5S earlier in 2013? Read More

The tech community has long anticipated a “Facebook phone” that could potentially give the iPhone a run for its money. A suspiciously-scheduled Facebook event scheduled for the 15th has people talking about it once again.

It could be said that the iPhone has hit a bit of a rough patch in the media over the past few months. After a few early hiccups with the release of the iPhone 5 that included a lackluster Apple Maps, complaints of a scratchable metal back (not to mention the typical complains that Apple didn’t do enough with the design), and a widely-covered report that Samsung led the smartphone market in 2012 handily over Apple, a new bit of news concerning Facebook could be the start of yet another opponent in the smartphone scene:

Facebook phone rumors have emerged once again, thanks to a cagey event scheduled for next week. Could it be? Read More

Monday, January 7th will apparently fix the faulty “do not disturb” feature. Is Apple’s slow response to bugs a trend worth worrying about?

Not dissimilar from “Mapgate” earlier in the year, a high-profile iOS 6 feature — the helpful “Do Not Disturb” feature — has gone from being highly touted to widely panned, after a big T.V. ad promotional push in the U.S. via the Williams’ sisters was rapidly succeeded by a tech glitch that rendered the feature dysfunctional. And much to the chagrin of iOS 6 users, Apple hasn’t rushed to fix the issue.

Sounds a bit like Apple Maps, doesn’t it? Read More

Apple appears to have equilized the supply-side of the iPhone 5‘s rocky supply and demand balance. But the wait time for the world’s favorite smartphone has left a bad taste in Apple.com customers’ mouths. 

I don’t enjoy branding new “gates” for Apple releases (ok — I kind of do), but the new “gate” associated with Apple and the iPhone 5 could be called something like “Retailgate.” This new moniker comes after a new report that shows the Apple.com website at a 4-year low for customer satisfaction ratings. While the rating is a composite of several factors, chances are, the wait time on ordering has much to do with the sharp decline in consumer sentiment when purchasing from Apple’s web-based store. Read More