The iPhone 5 News Blog

AppleInsider Staff report that Apple has negotiated more deals with smaller regional domestic carriers — mot recently with Kentucky’s Bluegrass Cellular, California’s Golden State Cellular, and Kansas’ Nex-Tech Wireless, which will begin offering the iPhone 4S on May 18.

So, what does that have to do with the iPhone 5? Nothing directly, but it does seem unlikely that Apple would be setting up more carrier partners with iPhone 4S stock and promotions for the third week of May if they are planning to unveil their next generation handset at the World Wide Developers Conference less than a month after that.

The Appleinsider report notes that these latest regional carrier partnerships come a month after five other small carriers announced they had signed partner deals with Apple, namely: Alaska Communications, Appalachian Wireless, Cellcom, GCI and nTelos which all began selling the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on April 20. Read More

More indication that a June iPhone 5 release is increasingly unlikely came late last week in a Digitimes report that Taiwanese Apple OEM suppliers TPK Holding and Wintek are anticipating a 15-20% sequential decline in their shipments of touch panels for iPhones the second quarter, “as iPhone 4S is moving into the final stage of its product life cycle.”

That certainly doesn’t sound like Apple is ramping up production of a new model iPhone for a June release. For some context, component production for the third-generation iPad was well underway by early December 2011 in preparation for the product’s March ’12 release.

On the other hand, Digitimes reporters Siu Han and Steve Shen note that according to unnamed industry insider sources, Apple is likely to adopt in-cell touch solutions for its next-generation model, projected for release in the third quarter of 2012.

Of course TPK and Wintek panel production metrics likely only relate directly to iPhone 4 and 4S sales volumes, since as we reported here last month, Apple is expected to source the new iPhone’s in-cell touch panels from Japanese OEMs Sharp and Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD) — not the two Taiwanese firms. Read More

Following its practice with the iPhone, Apple opted to carry over its previous iPad 2 model at a reduced price as a category entry-level offering selling alongside the New iPad with Retina display.

However, the “new” iPad 2, which is available only in the base, 16 GB WiFi version at $399.00, isn’t quite the direct carry-over it appears to be, and not in just a trivial way.

The big difference between the original iPad 2 and the “new” iPad 2 is in the processor. While both use A5 dual-core CPUs, the currentlly-sold iPad 2 model uses a new, smaller A5 chip rather than the A5 that powered the original version iPad 2. According to a Chipworks blog report, that previous generation A5, part number APL0498, was manufactured on Samsung Semiconductors’ 45 nm LP CMOS process, while this new A5 processor is manufactured using Samsung’s new 32 nm high-k metal gate, gate first, LP CMOS process technology.

However, the New (Retina) iPad’s A5X is still made using the an older 45-nanometer process. That means the entry-level iPad 2 is currently equipped with the most advanced Apple A-Series silicon of any Apple iOS product. Which seems a bit peculiar. I mean, why would Apple bother re-engineering its holdover entry-level tablet to run its most cutting-edge mobile processor chip?

Unless……. the new iPad 2 is being used as a testbed for the CPU that will be used in the next iPhone. That postulate appears to make quite a bit of logical sense. Reportedly, Samsung’s 32nm chip fabrication process has allowed the A5′s physical size to be reduced by 41 percent, which is pretty substantial, and could arguably be a key facilitator in making the next iPhone thinner, while paradoxically packing in a larger display, LTE 4G support, and perhaps NFC electronic credit card support. Read More

Analyst Peter Misek reads the tea leaves of component production in Asia and predicts a major ramping up of iPhone 5 production in September, thinner profile, bigger screen, and more DPI. But what is his track record for prognosticating the iPhone 5 accurately? 

Jefferies & Co.‘s Peter Misek has written so many reports about the iPhone 5 that he might have officially earned a title for it. Financial analyst Nouriel Roubini is known as “Dr. Doom” for predicting the financial meltdown. So, is Misek “Dr. iPhone 5,” perhaps? His reports and perspectives are typically the start of a brand-new cycle in the rumor mill, and I suspect he knows it. He’s even comfortable using the term “iPhone 5″ in his reports — a working title/place holder for the 6th generation iPhone that we, the techies, use because it’s easy to do so.

Who knows what Apple will really call it.

There’s no doubt that Mr. Misek knows his stuff about the consumer electronics production scene, but when it comes to making predictions, should we be listening to him? Moreover, should investors be listening to him? Let’s take a look back at his track record on predicting the features and release date of the iPhone 5. Read More

It might just be that consumers have iPhone 5 on the brain, but blog readers are tilting their head to the left and seeing implied 5s throughout the multi-colored logo for the 2012 WWDC. Is this one of Apple’s subtle hints, or just wishful thinking?

As a postscript to my article yesterday on the official announcement of the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference, I asked readers if they had any creative interpretations of this year’s WWDC logo, since Apple is well known to foreshadow their events with cryptic logos and promotional graphic that often hold clues to what new product is going to be announced. Apple’s choice of clues have sometimes proven to be too well-hidden, and only 20/20 hindsight reveals them after the new device has been announced.

In this case, however, a wide range of iPhone 5 News Blog readers immediately spotted a clue that jumped right out to them: a succession of implied 5s throughout the multicolored WWDC logo.

Can you see it? Cock your head to the left — readers in the thread from yesterday’s post are seeing a large, red 5 in the center of the logo, and a series of other implied 5s as well.

Of course, if you cock your head to the right, you see what looks like a series of apps or screens shooting upward, which would also imply that the WWDC will be soley about iOS 6. Still, veteran reader and commenter SpasticPat also located what he thinks looks like an implied iPhone 5 in the center of the graphic as well. A less-supported theory being bandied about is that the logo could also imply that Apple will announce the long-rumored iTV at the WWDC, or perhaps the even more mystical “Mini iPad.” But few have been able to find any hidden message in the WWDC logo to substantiate that theory. What about you? Do you see the 5s in the logo? Or do Apple users just have iPhone 5 on the brain?

By Michael Nace

Digitimes’ Siu Han and Steve Shen say that Apple’s new iPhone, which they expect to be released in the third quarter of 2012, will likely adopt in-cell touch panels sourced from Japanese OEMs Sharp and Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD), according to sources in Apple’s supply chain.

Their insider moles report that an improvement in yield rates of the in-cell touch panels at Sharp and TMD has persuaded Apple to cooperate with the two Japan-based panel makers, which will begin to ramp up in-cell panel production in this quarter.

Han and Shen say that in response, Apple’s current touch panel suppliers TPK Holdings and Wintek, will of course be negatively affected, and that in response, TPK has said it is developing TOL (touch on lens) single-glass touch solutions, which will be more suitable for the production of high-end customized devices, and that the market will accommodate more than one technology.

However, Focus Taiwan‘s Jeffrey Wu reports that Taiwanese OEMs have pretty much conceded iPhone 5 screen supply to their Japanese competition due to the latter firm’s technological leads in this field, with the new iPhone unlikely to benefit Taiwanese panel makers according to analyst David Hsieh, vice president of DisplaySearch in charge of the Greater China market.

“Of course, Taiwanese panel makers are also developing this technology, but Japanese suppliers still run faster,” Hsieh reportedly observed to reporters on the sidelines of the DisplaySearch Taiwan Flat Panel Display Conference.

Technical details on just what in-cell touch panels are and what their advantages might be are a bit sketchy, but Wu reports that compared with the older on-cell technology, in-cell touch panels can be made thinner, because the touch sensors are actually placed inside the color filters rather than on top of them.

A report by Redmond Pie’s Paul Paliath says in-cell technology integrates touch functionality into the TFT (thin-film transistor) manufacturing process, eliminating the need for additional glass, which not only reduces manufacturing costs but can facilitate development of a thinner and lighter device altogether.

According to AU Optronics Corp. , which unveiled two kinds of in-cell multi-touch panel technologies back in 2007, they integrate touch function features into the TFT-LCD manufacturing process without adding an additional glass and thus, are able to retain a thickness of 2.2mm with a resolution of 480 x 272 – thinner than conventional touch panel applications. They are also claimed to have superior anti-glare properties to retain proper image color saturation and readability even in bright sunlight, eliminate the inconvenience of frequently-required calibration of conventional touch panel applications, and feature real-time true multiple touch point detection which allows users to easily slide their fingers on the screen to better enjoy the touch panel experience.

By implementing the latest glass thinning technology and shrinking the thickness of related components, AUO demonstrated the thinnest reported 1.9-inch mobile device TFT-LCD at 0.69mm, 13% thinner than the thickness of a credit card. The new LCD screen with a weight of 2.2 grams and 400-nit high brightness accomplishes a multitude of desirable qualities – being light, slim, elegant and sunlight readable.

By Charles Moore

The answer to the mystery of what Apple was about in paying $20 million for licensing rights to Liquidmetal Technologies’ “amorphous metal alloys” nearly two years ago may soon be revealed.

On Wednesday the Apple blogosphere lit up over a new rumor reported by Korean journal ETNews’s Kim In-soon that the next iPhone will swap the iPhone 4 series’ glass case material for Liquidmetal alloy, the new design to be unveiled at is expected to be unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The high-tech alloy is said in the report to have an outer surface smooth like liquid, and would reportedly allow a thinner, lighter from factor that would also be more resistant to impact damage.

In-soon also reports that the Samsung Galaxy S3, scheduled to be unveiled in London in May 3, will have a ceramic main body. made by applying heat to a non-metallic inorganic substance, is extremely light and comfortable to grip.

Michael Nace has already addressed the potential veracity or otherwise of this rumor or otherwise at some length, but what of the material itself? What is Liquidmetal”

Liquidmetal was developed by a California Institute of Technology research team that later organized themselves into the Liquidmetal Technologies firm. Despite the name, Liquidmetal alloys are not liquid, but solid at room temperature, and are claimed to be hard-wearing and able to withstand thermal cycling, along with a constellation of other desirable material features including high tensile strength, excellent corrosion resistance, very high coefficient of restitution and excellent anti-wearing characteristics, while being able to be heat-formed in processes similar to thermoplastics. Liquidmetal, which was introduced for commercial applications in 2003, has reportedly been used to make golf clubs, golf balls, watches, covers of cell phones the cores of skis, baseball and softball bats, and tennis racquets.

According to Wikipedia, Liquidmetal technology has been used for making the SIM ejector tool of some iPhone 3Gs shipped in the US — done by Apple as an exercise to test the viability of usage of the metal. The alloy is claimed to retain a scratch-free surface longer than competing materials, while facilitating the molding of complex shapes — qualities that suit it to being used as protective coating for industrial machinery, petroleum drill pipes and power plant boiler tubes, and allow it to be considered as a replacement for titanium in applications ranging from medical instruments and cars to military and aerospace hardware.

More specifically, the explanation of Liquidmetal alloys’ properties notes that they contain atoms of significantly different sizes that form a dense mix with low free volume, and unlike crystalline metals, there is no obvious melting point at which viscosity drops suddenly. Rather they behave more like glass, in that viscosity drops gradually with increased temperature, and at high temperatures it behaves in a plastic manner, allowing mechanical properties to be controlled relatively easily during casting.

Because these alloys have relatively low softening temperatures (400 °C/752 °F for the earliest formulation), they can be molded, and allow casting of complicated shapes without need of finishing with material properties immediately after casting being much better than when casting with conventional metals, which usually need a lot of post-casting finish work. They also have low shrinkage during cooling. Liquidmetal can be formed into complex shapes using processes similar to ones used with thermoplastics, making Liquidmetal a potential replacement for many applications where plastics might otherwise be used.

Parallels with Apple’s interest in and development of cast aluminum “unibody” technology seem obvious, and if Liquidmetal iPhone enclosures prove successful, it would seem likely that the material and technique would be expanded for use with other Apple products as well, perhaps displacing the expensive and demanding process of machining device housings from a single piece of aluminum altogether. Casting should be significantly cheaper and faster than machining for volume production, and with Liquidmetal’s other desirable qualities, the upside for both Apple and for end-users could be substantial.

As for that June WWDC release date, as of this morning (April 19) a Bing search for “Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2012″ brings up only the WWDC 2011 link, which suggests that the June 11 date for the conference to open is looking a bit overly optimistic. It’s been speculated that WWDC might get pushed back to July or August this year. We’ll see.

By Charles Moore

A fresh rumor out of Asia outlining a lower price point and third quarter release for the fabled Mini iPad may further point to an iPhone 5 release sooner rather than later.

It’s always exciting to be able to present two exciting Apple rumors in one article here on the iPhone 5 News Blog. We begin with a new Mini iPad rumor out of Asia, which touches on the possible price point and release date window for the long-rumored little sibling to the industry-leading 9.7-inch iPad proper. Kotaku translates the Chinese report as such:

“Chinese net portal, NetEase, has a story on a rumored new mini Apple tablet. NetEase claimed that the device will be released around the third quarter of this year to “counter attack” the upcoming Windows tablets. The report further claims that the devices will cost anywhere from US$249 to $299 and that there will be an initial 6 million units ready for launch.”

9to5Mac, who has popularized the report here in the west, didn’t speak to the veracity of any rumor coming from NetEase, but they do imply a certain inevitability to the eventual appearance of the Mini iPad, stating, “The consensus is that Apple will use these to counter the mid-range tablet market that Amazon and others are now having some success in. The screen at 7.85 inches could hold the original iPad pixel dimensions and allow Apple to cut costs considerably.”

We’ve reported recently that a prototype of the Mini iPad does indeed exist, having been spotted in Cupertino’s labs, and that the design is essentially just a smaller version of the current iPad. It would stand to reason that Apple will reuse as many of the internal components as possible in order to streamline Mini iPad production to coincide with regular iPad production as well, though Cupertino will obviously have to devise a smaller chassis and display.

This is not the first time that we have heard the rumor that the Mini iPad will debut in the latter half of 2012. However, let’s segway into what this may mean for the iPhone 5 release.

It stands to reason that, should the Mini iPad debut in the third quarter of 2012, there is more chance of Apple looking to release the iPhone 5 several months before it, in order to keep their high-profile mobile products well-spaced from one another. If the iPhone 5 were to be announced in June, it will have been launched more than three months after the iPad 3. Similarly, if the Mini iPad is announced in October, it would enjoy a similarly spaced buffer. It’s just my opinion, but this release schedule theory seems more in keeping with what we’ve seen from Apple, rather than releasing two high-profile products close to one another.

And let’s not forget that they may also be looking to fit iTV into the 2012 release schedule as well.

Another thing to consider with the Mini iPad’s release is how it could affect the iPhone 5′s screen size. Steve Jobs is famously known for being skeptical of small-screened tablet computers, for fear that they encroach into an ambiguous no man’s land, somewhere between smartphone and tablet. Samsung has happily ventured into this no man’s land with the Galaxy Note, but Apple may be less apt to offer a big-screened iPhone 5. It will be interesting to see if Apple offers only a modest screen increase for the iPhone 5 in order to keep it dimensionally distant from the Mini iPad.

Regardless, if you’re an optimist, then you have to love the prospect of these rumors about the Mini iPad coming true, since, in my opinion, they most definitely have positive implications for an iPhone 5 release date coming sooner rather later.

By Michael Nace

Blogger danbo of the Japanese Apple-watcher site Macotakara reports that in a major Japanese business news program “World Business Satellite (WBS)” broadcast by TV-Tokyo of a program entitled “Launching the Rising-Sun Display company”, a Foxconn spokesman explained the reason for its recent recruitment of 18,000 more production personnel thus: “This (large hiring) is for iPhone 5 which will be sold in June”.

danbo says the interview can be found at the URL below, although since it’s in Japanese, it probably won’t be too much help to iPhone 5 News Blog readers.
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/mv/wbs/newsl/post_18230nuu

Meanwhile Motley Fool’s Rick Aristotle Munarriz, that while Apple will never confirm or deny a loose-lipped leak like that, even if new iPhone 5 handsets begin rolling off FFoxconn’s assemblyline in June, it could still be weeks or months later before a retail release takes place, probably taking us into fall or close to it, which is the release time many of us (including me) have deduced as most likely for rthenext iPhone’s public release.

However, MMunarrizthinks there are also several reasons why a June iPhone 5 release would make sense. For one thing, he says, Apple has historically released iPhone revisions in June or July, and that dating back to the original iPhone release in June 2007, the company had typically stuck to that pattern until breaking precedent and going with an October release last year with the iPhone 4.

Reason number two would be that the 4G revolution is now well-enough established that Apple has seen fit to release the third-generation iPad with optional LTE support, and as Munarriz observes, if it can be done with the iPad, it should also be timely for a 4G iPhone to come on stage.

Then there’s the imminent April 8 debut of Nokia’s Lumia 900 phone with its Microsoft OS, which Munarriz predicts will be Microsoft’s boldest challenge to the iPhone and Android market dominance yet, the hardware being both cheap and feature-rich, and he thinks Apple will want to take the wind out of Microsoft’s and Nokia’s sails with an Phone 5 as soon as possible. Finally, he deduces that Apple CEO Tim Cook probably wants to get its annual iPhone refresh cycle back on historical track, and speculates that the iPhone 4S delay could have been largely attributable to concern over Steve Jobs’s health crisis last year.

That all sounds reasonably plausible, but I still don’t think MMunarriz’scase for a June release is ironclad, and as he noted, the Foxconn exec’s revelation on Japanese TV could be completely accurate and still consistent with a fall iPhone 5 rollout.

Something that might incline Apple to pull the trigger on a June iPhone 5 release (presuming that development is completed) is if there were a softening in iPhone 4S sales, but there’s little evidence of that so far. In Apple’s fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 31, 2011, the company reported iPhone sales of 37 million, an increase of 128% year-over-year, and the 4S was only released in some markets as recently as January.

Market research form Gartner Inc. reported in February that “Apple had an exceptional fourth quarter, selling 35.5 million smartphones to end users, a 121.4 percent increase year on year.” Gartner further predicted that Apple’s performance in the smartphone sector would continue through the first quarter of 2012 as availability of the iPhone 4S widened, although with residual pent-up demand pretty much fulfilled, iPhone 4S sales would no longer benefit from that factor as they had in Q4 2011, and its analysts projected sales declining somewhat quarter-on-quarter.”

Taking a contrarian view to Rick Aristotle MMunarriz’s iMore’s editor-in-chief Rene Ritchie, who reportedly has Ritchie has “valuable sources from within Apple.” a couple of weeks back predicted an October 2012 release for the iPhone 5. Ritchie has a solid track record with Apple news. Ritchie has considerable cred as a commentator on this matter, having correctly forecast back in August, 2011 that Apple’s then forthcoming iPhone revision would be released in the first week of October and called “iPhone 4S,” while most pundits continued to blabber about an “iPhone 5.” Ritchie also correctly forecast the new iPad’s March 7 unveiling.

Rene Ritchie is now saying that new iPhone will indeed be 4G LTE compatible, reasoning that it’s hard to imagine Apple equipping the iPad a feature like that and not adding it to the iPhone as well, and referring to the “iPhone 5.1″ being on track for a similar if not same sized screen, although pperhapsslightly larger than the current 3.5-inch unit and a new micro dock connector. Nothing said about processor or graphics engine power, but I remain skeptical that Apple would introduce its rumored quad-core A6 silicon in the iPhone rather than the next iPad.

Ritchie also notes that up to now, every new iPhone release has been accompanied by a new OS version, and while no specific information on how large an update Apple is planning for iOS 6 has emerged, nine months doesn’t seem like adequate development time for even a modest OS upgrade, deducing that if iOS 6 is not introduced to developers until the World Wide Developers Conference in June, another fall iPhone release would seem “a certainty.”

The roadmap may become a bit more certain after Apple reports its revenue and earnings statement for its second fiscal quarter on April 24. The International Business Times’ Carlo Alejandro Fernandez says that while Apple likely won’t talk specifically about a sixth generation iPhone during its April 24 conference call, the Q2 results should provide a better clue as to whether the iPhone 5 will be released October or in June.

And April 24 is not that far off.

By Charles Moore

What size display panel are you hoping for in the iPhone 5? According to a new Strategy Analytics Wireless Device Lab report, “Smartphone Owners Want Thin Devices with Larger Displays,” the largest proportion of surveyed smartphone owner respondents said they prefer device screens in the 4.0-inch to 4.5-inch range, as long as the device is also thin.

However, there was some variance in size preference among different smartphone user demographics. Female respondents were more likely to consider slightly smaller handsets than males, and existing Android phone owners were more likely to favor larger devices than were existing Apple iPhone owners. However, there was a high degree of general unanimity favoring larger smartphone displays.

“Almost 90 percent of existing smartphone owners surveyed chose a prototype smartphone with a display larger than their current device,” comments Paul Brown, a Director in the Strategy Analytics User Experience Practice. “This trend is driven by increased mobile web browsing capability, as well as engaging video and gaming experiences.”

Kevin Nolan, Vice-President for the User Experience Practice at Strategy Analytics, observes that In order for smartphone owners to adopt larger devices, it is important for handset manufacturers to ensure that mobile devices are not too heavy and that the devices remain thin enough for purses and pockets.

And of course there’s the rub. People are looking for thin, light pocketable form factor smartphones with big screens, more powerful processors, 4G/LTE wireless support, and long battery charge life — form factor and engineering qualities that tend to be antagonistic in terms of engineering and design trade-offs and compromises. It’s a case of be careful what you wish for.

Even with the much larger iPad’s form factor affording more flexibility than does a smartphone, Apple has pushed technology limits in order to support the third-generation iPad’s new Retina display and 4G/LTE wireless connectivity support. Even with a quad core graphics engine, twice the RAM of the iPad 2, and a bigger battery with a charge capacity of 42.5 watt hours, up about 75 percent from 25 watt hours in the iPad 2, the new iPad manages to only offer about the same level of performance (or slightly less) and battery charge life as the still-available iPad 2. It’s also thicker, noticeably heavier, runs significantly hotter, and takes nearly twice as long to charge, with pretty much all of that increased capacity being swallowed up byt the power demands of a display with about four times the pixel count as the iPad 2′s display.

Personally, I don’t think its a worthwhile trade-off, as nice as that big Retina display would be to have, and if I didn’t already have an iPad 2 and was shopping for an Apple tablet today, I would still be leaning to the still available and lighter-on-its-feet older model, which is also now a hundred bucks cheaper.

There seems to be a consensus that a smartphone display in the 4-inch to 4.5-inch size range would be the sweet spot, and maybe it would. Android phones already exist with those size screens, but it bears noting that they’re lower-resolution than the current iPhone 4S’s 3.5-inch, 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi dot pitch Retina display. For example, the Samsung 19000 Galaxy S has a 4.0 inch panel, but it’s only 480 x 800 resolution at a 233 ppi pixel density, and the more recently introduced Galaxy S II has a 4.3-inch display with the same 480 x 800 pixel count, but at a modest 218 ppi dot pitch. A 4-inch or 4.5 inch Retina display would be a glory to behold, but a relative battery hog.

With iPhone fans anticipating a larger but still Retina-quality display in the next-generation Apple handset, along with LTE, a quad-core processor, longer battery life, a slimmer, sleeker form factor, and possibly enhanced Siri and NFC electronic wallet support, something is arguably going to have to be left by the wayside. What feature or quality would you prioritize, and which one(s) would you be most willing to throw under the bus?

By Charles Moore