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Reports: iPhone 5S Parts Production Ramping Up

Posted by Michael Nace under Apple Rumors, iPhone 5S Predictions on Sunday May 12, 2013

iphone 5S camera sensor

Leaked images and recent reports suggest that the iPhone 5S‘s components are about to enter full production. A late-summer release may be in sight.

One of the few reliable indicators in the iPhone rumor cycle are reports of component production ramping up. Without them — as well as an iOS beta release to work with — the next iPhone is nothing more than a glint in Tim Cook’s eye. The good news, however, is that we’re finally beginning to see reports flow in from Asia that production of components is getting underway in earnest.

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13 COMMENTS | Tags : apple, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5S camera

el cheap-o iPhone 5s
After nearly a year of lofty claims of a phablet release and low-cost iPhone, the tech media and analysts are beginning to settle on nothing more than the refreshed iPhone 5S.

The bold, provocative claims on this year’s rumor mill appear to fast dissolving as the WWDC approaches. Last week, we reported on how analysts were walking back initial claims of an early-summer iPhone 5S release, citing supply issues in Asia. Still in the rumor hopper as of last week, however, were the prospects of the long-rumored, low-cost “el cheap-o” iPhone, whose rear plate was rumored to have been sourced by case company Tactus. Along with the belief by some in the media and industry that Apple would expand the 2013 iPhone’s screen to playlet-like dimensions, the hopes for a big Apple splash remained palpable.

Now, a new report suggests that analysts and the media are rethinking such claims, and settling on the fact that consumers may get little more than a refreshed iPhone 5S in 2013 after all. Read More

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9 COMMENTS | Tags : apple, iPhone 5S, iphone 6, low cost iPhone

June iPhone 5S release date

June iPhone 5S release date rumors and predictions persist, in spite of the upcoming iPhone 5 release on T-Mobile.

If you were one of the people (such as myself) who felt that the iPhone 5S release date calculus changed once T-Mobile announced that it would begin offering the iPhone 5 in mid-April, then you might be surprised to note that the June iPhone 5S release date speculation is still alive and kicking. Since T-Mobile’s announcement back in late March, the lion’s share of iPhone 5S release date rumors and opinions have focused on June — not the late summer or early fall.

Why is the rumor mill still focused on June as a viable release month? Read More

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15 COMMENTS | Tags : iPhone 5S, iPhone 5S release date

The Japanese Apple-watcher Macotakara blog say they’ve received “very reliable information” that a cheaper iPhone with a polycarbonate housing similar in clearcoat shiny texture to the now-discontinued MacBook for Education (13-inch, Mid 2010) laptop’s case instead of aluminum and glass, but available in a variety of colors instead of just refrigerator white, and a price target of $330, in parity with the hot-selling iPad mini.

Based on what I’ve been able to decipher from a Google machine translation (which isn’t as efficient with Japanese as it is with most other languages), the new lower-priced iPhone is projected to have the same general design and display dimensions as the iPhone 5 but be somewhat thicker in form factor in order to make the polycarbonate housing adequately rugged and durable.

However, Macotakara’s sources say that release of a 4.5-inch iPhone not-quite-phablet will be delayed until 2014. The blog also claims that in the meantime, Apple apparently plans to add a dual-flash LED module on the back of the forthcoming iPhone 5S for better low-light photography capability.

Macotakara has a pretty good record for making reasonably accurate product predictions, and these ones seem like they could be plausible, although I’m not completely sold on the timelines. Apple hasn’t released a new iPhone model in June since the 3GS in 2009, but this could be the year June announcements return with 5S June release. However, there is precedent for an April announcement — albeit a minor one: the white version of the iPhone 4 in 2011.

That seems a little soon for either an iPhone 5S or a new low-end plastic housing model, but Apple needs to generate some excitement and may be doing all it can to get some new product out as soon as possible. The low-price plastic iPhone sounds as if it will be essentially an iPhone 5 in a polycarbonate case, with the same screen and internals, so if the component supply issues that plagued early iPhone 5 production have been addressed, that should be doable.

Whether an iPhone 5S is likewise depends on how much of a tweak the “S” variant gets compared with the current iPhone 5. The most recent “S” upgrade in October, 2011 was a substantial makeover internally, and one would expect something similar with the iPhone 5S. fall seems to me more likely.

And if it turns out to be fall for the 5S, then a 2014 release of a 4.5-inch iPhone 6 looks logical too, so Macotakara’s timeline makes logical sense in that context. However, I think Apple is making a serious mistake if they do opt for a 4.5-inch display instead of, say, 4.8-inches or 5-inches. The phablet convergence seems like it’s going to be an abiding trend, and 4.5-inches only qualifies as a biggish smartphone and not really what people are looking for in a phablet.

In A DisplaySearch Analyst Blog, David Hsieh observes that by releasing the iPad mini in late 2012, Apple has at least tacitly acknowledged that smaller size (7-9-inch) tablet computers will become a larger market segment than the larger 9.7-inch and 10.1-inch units. Hsieh says key aspects to the smaller tablet devices’ surging popularity are their more attractive prices and holdability in one hand rather than two, noting that data published in the latest DisplaysSearch Monthly TFT LCD Shipment Database indicate that in January 2013, tablet PC panel shipments shifted dramatically toward smaller screen sizes.

However, the market hasn’t settled out to any sort of stable equilibrium yet, with a wild card being how much 7.x-inch tablet computer sales will be affected by 5-6-inch smartphone “phablet” sales. Hsieh suggests that as smartphones move to larger sizes such as 5-6-inch, phablets – converged smartphone and tablet PC devices – could cannibalize the 7.x-inch tablet computer market. With only a 4.5-inch screen device, Apple will be ill-equipped to ride that wave.

Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes that even though it never attends, Apple has always a looming presence at Mobile World Congress held every year since 2009 in Barcelona — in past years Apple’s iPhone platform having set the bar by which other smartphone vendors measured themselves. But he says that’s not the case this year.

Elmer-DeWitt cites Jefferies analyst Peter Misek in a “flash note” to clients contending that 4.7-inch to 5.5-inch are becoming the new standard screen sizes for mobile devices, writing: “We think this demonstrates how badly Apple is losing the screen-size war. And while this has primarily been a high-end trend so far, we think that it could be even more pronounced as it moves to the low end and consumers do not have the money to buy a smartphone and a tablet so they migrate to the phablet form factor.”

In this dynamic, Apple doesn’t really have latitude to guess wrong about screen size trends again, but I’m apprehensive that if they insist on a 4.5-inch iPhone 6, they will have.

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Global LTE For The iPhone 5S: One Chip To Rule Them All

Posted by Michael Nace under iPhone 5S Predictions on Friday Feb 22, 2013

RF360 Front-End Solution on iPhone 5S

While LTE remains a major selling point for smartphones in the U.S. and worldwide, Apple may deploy Qualcomm’s new global LTE chip in the iPhone 5S.

Just on the heels of the iPhone 4S release (instead of the iPhone 5) in 2011, a study in the U.S. revealed that the most missed feature on the 4S wasn’t a new form factor or larger screen, but LTE. Since that time, 4G LTE has fast become a strong selling point for top-tier smartphones, and a defining feature for the iPhone 5. Thanks to a new piece of technology from Qualcomm, it’s possible that the iPhone 5S will be able to connect to disparate LTE networks worldwide. Read More

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4 COMMENTS | Tags : apple, iPhone 5S, LTE, Qualcomm, RF360 Front-End Solution on iPhone 5S

low-cost iPhone 5S

A new round of unsubstantiated rumors suggest that the iPhone 5S will come in several variations, one of which will be priced at $199.

The rumor mill has been trying to figure how this theoretical el cheap-o iPhone we keep hearing about will fit into the 2013 release schedule, what it will be called, and how it would manage to be profitable for Apple. Today, a new round of articles is suggesting that the iPhone 5S, which is fast becoming the most anticipated possibility for the 2013 iPhone release, could come in a range of models, one of which would be priced as low as $199.

Could this be the way that Apple makes their products more affordable without releasing a “crappy” product, as Tim Cook put it? Read More

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5 COMMENTS | Tags : $199 iPhone 5S, apple, iPhone 5S, Low Cost iPhone 5S

iPhone 5S A7 chip photo

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
 

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11 COMMENTS | Tags : A7, apple, iOS 7, iPhone 5S

New A7 Buzz Points To Summer iPhone 5S Release, No NFC

Posted by Michael Nace under Apple Rumors, iPhone 5S Predictions on Thursday Feb 7, 2013

iPhone 5S A7 chip

New insights into the future of the A7 chip has some believing that the iPhone 5S could be slated for a summer release. Chances of NFC and iWallet, however, are slim.

As usual, the iPhone rumor mill continues to become more fragmented, with conflicting reports and rumors on hoe many iPhone models we’ll see this year, what they will cost, what they’ll be all about, and when they might arrive. Add a new one to the mix: prognostication from a tech analyst now suggests that production of the A7 chip — the processor expected to debut on the next iPhone — holds the key to the iPhone 5S release date. Read More

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2 COMMENTS | Tags : A7, iPhone 5S, iWallet, NFC

iphone 5s fake ad

Wall Street sees the eventual release of a refreshed iPhone 5S as a positive step for Apple to regain its composure in meeting earnings estimates and continuing to succeed in the smartphone marketplace.

Avid iPhone users typically wish for much more than what they end up getting with new iPhone releases, but a recent memo from a Wall Street tech analyst indicate that investors see Apple’s eventual iPhone 5S release as well-positioned to help Cupertino meet earnings estimates and boost iPhone sales for 2013. Read More

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10 COMMENTS | Tags : iPhone sales

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

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