The iPhone 5 News Blog

Using just a bit of deductive reasoning, the final piece of evidence — this time from Verizon — cements the long-standing speculation that the iPhone 5 will be Apple’s first 4G LTE smartphone.

Few people would appear to be in doubt as to whether or not the iPhone 5 will be 4G LTE, given the fact that the iPad 3 has ushered in 4G connectivity to the Apple brand. But a report today indicating that Verizon will release only 4G LTE smartphones this year is perhaps just as convincing as the iPad 3 that we can expect a 4G LTE iPhone 5.

According to the Christian Post, “The fact that the carrier has declared this means that the next generation iPhone will most likely be an LTE device, since that smartphone is sure to launch sometime this year.”

Implicit in Verizon’s announcement is that fact that Verizon is obviously looking to switch over to selling 4G smartphones only — not just in 2012, but 2012 and beyond. Therefore, it is not only a big announcement for the future of the iPhone 5, but also a leading indicator that 4G LTE has truly arrived, and Verizon is not looking to continue to propagate 3G smartphones. This is essentially a confirmation that 3G is on its way out.

No doubt, the iPhone 5 being 4G LTE will indeed finally mainstream 4G connectivity (at least in the U.S.), and it is safe to assume that AT&T and Sprint will follow suit with this decision. You’ll also recall that, when Sprint announced the iPhone 4S last fall, they also said that they would be investing heavily in 4G. We wrote about it back on October 10th, revealing that Sprint was essentially going all in with 4G in 2012, and planning on releasing a bevy of LTE devices — with the iPhone ostensibly being one of them: “We were explicitly told in the press conference that Sprint’s first 4G devices will be dual-mode CDMA/LTE devices — including tablets and smartphones — and that they will begin to be available in mid 2012, expecting 15 4G-ready devices in the first wave.”

At the beginning of the year, we also reported on how analysts were beginning to see an LTE iPhone 5 as the harbinger of mainstream 4G LTE adoption. It would seem that that prediction is coming true, with the iPad 3 laying down the framework for a 4G LTE iPhone 5.

By Michael Nace

Apple’s opting to go with a pretty much carry-over A5X dual-core CPU in the third-generation iPad hasn’t done a whole lot to clarify what processor chip will likely power the iPhone 5 later this year. In fact it’s somewhat muddied the waters.

It’s now been revealed that the “X” in A5 X refers pretty much to the new iPad’s quad-core graphics processor, and not to any speed tweaking of the main processor itself, which remains much the same dual-core Cortex A9-based chip that powers the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

The Vietnamese blogsite tinhte.vn has managed to obtain a third-generation iPad prior to the official release, and installed GeekBench software to benchmark its performance, which scores it at 756, which is about the median, or a bit lower, than scores for the iPad 2′s A5 CPU posted on this site:
http://bit.ly/Awc33r

It has been suggested that the A5X may turn out to be an iPad-only special chip engineered especially to support the new iPad’s big Retina display. The new iPad is equipped with 1GB of RAM, double the the iPad 2′s and iPhone 4S’s memory capacity, and quadruple that of the original iPad, but the A5X the CPU is still clocked at 1GHz. Whatever size panel Apple uses in the next generation iPhone, it’s not going to need the graphics processing muscle of the A5X. Michael Nace addressed that point at greater length here on Monday,

So the operative question becomes whether Apple will opt to continue using an A5 dual-core CPU in the iPhone 5, or choose to introduce a quad-core A6 CPU to the world in an iPhone rather than an iPad. That is of course provided that an A6 is ready for release in time for the new iPhone rollout. Arguably, the tradeoff between maintaining a fashionably thin and light form factor and ensuring satisfactory battery life is more critically acute with smartphones than it is with tablet computers, and there will also presumably be the complicating factor of LTE/4G support, which will almost certainly have to be incorporated in the iPhone 5 now that it’s available in the iPad as well as much of the Android competition. LTE will of course mean more power demand, which would make a quad-core CPU logical from that perspective, but would have to be reconciled with acceptable battery capacity and the dictates of fashion.

However, it’s been speculated that new battery technology applied to the new iPad is substantially more efficient in terms of bulk and weight vs capacity, and if that’s an accurate surmise, then it will be used in the new iPhone as well. I think that given the A5X’s decent, albeit not stellar performance in the new iPad while supporting LTE communications, Apple could probably get away with carrying over the A5 chip to the next generation iPhone if the RAM is boosted to the iPad’s 1 GB, although the possible addition of NFC to the mix along with Siri — which is not yet a factor with the iPad would also have to be taken into consideration.

Looking farther into the future, ARM, on whose technology Apple’s A-series CPUs are based, has unveiled a new Cortex-M0+ Processor which it says is the most energy efficient ARM processor available, further reducing energy consumption and increasing performance. ARM claims that the exceptionally small silicon area, low power and minimal code footprint of these processors will enable developers to achieve 32-bit performance at an 8-bit price point, bypassing the step to 16-bit devices. According to ARM, the chip’s optimized architecture with a core pipeline of just two stages enables the Cortex-M0+ processor to achieve power consumption of just 11.2uW/MHz (90LP process, minimal configuration), while raising the performance to 1.77 CoreMark/MHz.

Also looking more and more like a sure thing is a 7.85-inch iPad mini, confirmation of which appears to have been blabbed by an anonymous Samsung Electronics official interviewed by The Korea Times’ Kim Yoo-chul this week.

Commenting on Samsung’s continued robust business relationship with Apple notwithstanding the patent litigation battles they’ve been engaged in, the official is quoted affirming that “The contract [to supply Apple with components] is expected to rise to $11 billion by the end of this year, as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung’s faster solid state drive (SSD) storage.”

Samsung makes the A5 and A5X CPUs and Samsung’s QXGA panels used in iPhones and iPads, and Apple bought $7.8 billion worth of components from Samsung in 2011, including displays, mobile application processors (APs), NAND flash chips and mobile DRAMs – making it Samsung’s single biggest customer as well as its patent litigation nemesis, the official noting that while “The amount of the current contract is around $9.7 billion,” but suggesting that the amount may go up to $11 billion, depending on demand for Apple products, and is expected to continue increasing until at least 2014 under the terms of the current contract between the two companies, observing that Apple products’ popularity lines Samsung’s pockets as well.

By Charles Moore

My first impression that Apple was being too cute by half in going with just “iPad” for the third-gen tablet is evolving. Peripherals and accessories manufacturers are already struggling with the unexpected name. For example, check out this from a press release I received today from Kensington:

Kensington KeyFolio Bluetooth Keyboard Case for new iPad®, iPad® 2 & iPad® (K39336US; $99.99)

“New iPad” will work for a bit, but what do they do for the next act? And what will we call it when the next generation is released and this one is no longer new?

I was underwhelmed by Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller’s explanation to The Wall Street Journal that Cupertino decided to call the new iPad simply “iPad” “because we don’t want to be predictable.” That manages to be both lame and supercilious simultaneously, and I’m not convinced that Schiller was being candid or serious about that. Others have suggested, more convincingly in my estimation, that it may be more that Apple wants to “generify” the iPad name, much the way the MacBook and iMac names are applied to various versions of their respective products. The aforementioned Pismo was the last Apple laptop to be popularly referenced by a development code name. Subsequent models have just gone by more generic nomenclature like PowerBook G4 or the various MacBook family designations, with versions distinguished by the dates of their release, eg: “late 2008,” or “mid-2011,” etc. — much the way automobiles are.

Consequently, if this change in Apple idevice naming conventions turns out to be a policy shift rather than just cocking a snook at the Apple rumorista cohort, the iPad model announced Wednesday would eventually be referred to as the “early-2012 iPad,” and the rumored 7.85-inch model, if it materializes in Q3 would be the “late-2012 iPad, and so forth.

And if that be the case, we may never see an iPhone 5; in fact, I’m now skeptical that we will. My inference could be mistaken of course, but I would rate the odds as less than 50-50 that a new iPad released later this year will be called “iPhone 5″ by Apple. More likely it will be “mid-2012” or “late-2012″ iPhone. Actually, that would be more precisely appropriate than iPhone 5 strictly speaking, since the current iPhone 4S is the 5th-generation iPhone.

Moving on, I’m also altering my provisional deduction that the next iPhone will share the new Apple A5X CPU with the new IPad, and my evolving POV has to do with the new iPad’s emphasis on graphics performance necessitated by the big Retina Display. The next iPhone, whose screen will be much smaller, won’t need nearly as much emphasis on graphics processing muscle.

Apple’s official description of the iPad chip is: ”Dual-core Apple A5X custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip with quad-core graphics.” Not exactly crystal-clear what that signifies, but CNET Crave’s Margerite Reardon quotes fellow CNET blogger and chip guru Brooke Crothers explaining that:

“The new iPad’s graphics chip — which is based on Imagination’s PowerVR tech — is basically a quad-core version of the dual-core graphics chip in the iPad 2. That’s where Apple gets the two-fold performance increase. The upshot is that Apple is focusing on the GPU because it needs to devote all of the chip real estate it can to transistors that push around an amazingly pixel-dense display–which crams a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 into a 9.7-inch display.”

So, the pertinent question for most readers of this blogsite is what Apple’s choice of processor silicon for the new iPad portends for the iPhone 5 (since Wednesday it seems prudent to consider that name a possible placeholder) coming later this year. My read of the tealeaves is that odds of the next iPhone having a quad-core A6 processor are looking even slimmer that they had been — I still think it’s more likely that Apple will launch the A6 in an iPad. That would be especially the case if the new Apple handset were to be released at the WWDC three months from now, as I don’t think it will be, ‘but I think it’s a very long shot even for a fall 2012 release.

I’m guessing now that iPhone 5 (or whatever) this year will be powered by another A5 variant, but probably one without the A5X’s quad-core graphics.

IDG News Service’s Agam Shah cites several analysts suggesting that the A5X, with its four graphics cores and heavy focus on graphics processing performance, may not be ideal for smartphone use, although they are crucial for providing smooth operation of the iPad’s 2048-by-1536-pixel display.

More likely the iPhone would get its own chip, possibly produced with a 28-nanometer manufacturing process (refers to refers to the size of the smallest circuits etched onto the chip) that would make it more power-efficient and cheaper to produce, but which wasn’t quite ready in time for the early 2012 iPad. Current ARM-based chips are manufactured with a 40-nanometer process and based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 technology, but it’s expected that a new more power-efficient 28-nanometer Cortex-A15 core family of ARM CPUs will be ready to ship later this year. Ergo, probably the A6, but not necessarily quad-core, at least for the iPhone.

By Charles Moore

Apple’s decision to include an A5X processor with quad-core graphics in the New iPad is in line with a growing quad-core trend for mobile devices. But a leading analyst believes that the iPhone 5 is unlikely to use the same processor.

In the months leading up to the release of the New iPad, debate swung heavily back and forth between whether or not Apple would equip their third-generation tablet with a rumored dual-core A5X processor or quad-core A6 chip. In the end, the A5x turned out to support quad-core graphics, and well-suited for the robust software features and high-definition display on the New iPad.

But for as much as the new A5x would appear to be ushering in a new quad-core movement in Apple’s mobile gadget ranks, a leading analyst argues that the high performance of the A5X processor may not be well suited for the upcoming iPhone 5. According to Macworld, “The chips used in the first two iPads, the A4 and A5, both made their way into a new iPhone soon after. But the A5X, with its heavy focus on graphics, may not be ideal for smartphone use, and Apple may wait for a more power-efficient chip built with a new manufacturing process.”

This perspective comes by way of Linley Group founder Linley Gwennap, who states that the A5X is simply too power inefficient, and thus the iPhone 5′s smaller battery will not be a good match: “I think that this new chip is probably just for the iPad… it looks like they planned ahead for this.”

The Macworld article also goes on to cite “Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research,” who “also sees the current A5X as an unlikely candidate for the next iPhone, which won’t require as much graphics processing power as an iPad. The current iPhone has a display density of 326 pixels per inch, greater than the latest iPad’s 264 pixels per inch, but the iPhone has only a 3.7-inch display.”

Gwennap and McCarron are both imagining that, while the A5X chip supports quad-core graphics, we could be due for a dual-core A6 later in the year, which would be used on the iPhone 5, since matching the New iPad’s graphics will not be a priority, while offering an iPhone 5 with sustained battery life will be.

Apple enthusiasts may be disturbed by the prospect of a quad-core A5X chip being followed up by a dual-core A6 chip for the iPhone 6, sensing yet another odd naming convention, similar to the disconcerting nature of Apple’s decision to brand the new iPad simply as the “New iPad.” But in point of fact, it is much easier to justify the A5X’s name as a possible new sub-series for all of Apple’s future quad-core graphics chips: now, whenever “X” appears on the chip name, it may be indicative of quad-core graphics, versus the dual-core design of the A4, A5, and soon-to-be A6 chips.

More tricky for Apple, however, could be leaving off quad-core processing technology on the iPhone 5 altogether in the year where quad-core is being deployed heavily across a wide range of competing devices. We’ve already reported on the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, which is set to find its way onto Android smartphones this year. Similar to the issue of 4G LTE, Apple may not from a marketing standpoint be able to ignore quad-core processing on the iPhone 5 if it is perceived by consumers as a necessity for top-tier smartphone designs.

By Michael Nace

Many commentators, including me, have been of a mind that the most likely date for the iPhone 5‘s release would be in June at the Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference. That supposition, at least in my case, has been based on deductive guesswork and past precedent rather than hard knowledge, the latter being the preserve of only an elite few insiders in the upper echelons of Apple’s executive hierarchy – if indeed a release date has yet been finalized.

However, June may be optimistic. A post by danbo at the Japan-based Macotakara blog Monday, says that according to a reliable Asian source, the next iPhone will be released in September or October, continuing a new iPhone release cycle begun with the iPhone 4S last fall that could be sustained “for years,” taking over a calendar time slot that had been reserved for Apple’s erstwhile annual iPod event.

However with the iPod gradually fading and being more and more eclipsed by the iPhone and iPad, it makes logical sense for Apple to use the time–window early in the school year and at the beginning of the Christmas season ramp–up to better advantage for a higher–profile and more lucrative flagship product like the iPhone.

That timing certainly paid off with the iPhone 4S launch last fall. The 4S, despite a bit of a chilly welcome from hardcore iPhone enthusiasts disgruntled by the anticipated iPhone 5′s no–show, has turned out to be the hottest–selling iPhone model ever, and the company’s most prodigious money–spinner.

So after digesting all that, I’m changing my speculative forecast. I’m now convinced provisionally that a fall iPhone 5 launch is a greater likelihood than a rollout at WWDC, which leaves the interesting question of what will be unveiled at WWDC. My guess is that it will be new laptops, which are overdue for an overhaul, and the timing seems to coincide well with Intel’s recently slowed–down phased release roadmap for its new Ivy Bridge Core i CPU family.

Meanwhile, next on the Applecart agenda is the iPad 3 launch, which pretty much everyone agrees will likely happen next month. On the other hand there are differing schools of thought on whether or not iPad 3 will feature quad-core A6 CPU silicon. I’ve been skeptical, and remain so.

For on thing, a few weeks before Christmas, Samsung announced that it was ramping up A5 chip production at its new Austin, Texas fabrication facility. THat was around the time the iPad 3′s specification would have been gelled, and production initiated for a March launch. It’s hard to imagine that Samsung would start up a new A5 production operation if the chip was about to be superseded.

However, a possible silver lining to the late iPHone release cloud is that leaves more time for Apple to get its A6 ducks in a row. That’s of course not to say that the next iPhone will have quad-core silicon. I’m more inclined to think Apple will prefer to introduce the A6 CPU in an iPad rather than an iPhone, but they could surprise me.

Meanwhile, The Register Hardware’s Caleb Cox reports that Apple’s next tablet upgrade will feature a dual-core A5X system-on-a-chip, if photos of a supposed iPad 3 logic board posted online in a forum post on Chinese site WeiPhone are of the real goods. The images show the new iPad’s CPU is an upgraded version of the A5. Cox notes that a date code of 1146 is visible, indicating that the A5X chip was manufactured in the 46th week of 2011, which would be the 14-20 November — around the time Samsung’s Texas A5 fab started production.

If that purported A5X CPU is the real McCoy, it could well be the chip that powers the iPhone 5, following the pattern of the A5 chip introduced in the iPad 2 last March eventually also powering the iPhone 4S.

For all of the excitement over retina displays, bigger screens, and new form factors, tech analysts now believe that 4G LTE will be the upgraded feature on the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 that will drive massive sales in 2012.

With so much emphasis placed on the look and screen size of the upcoming iPhone 5, as well as the bumped-up display of the iPad 3, it would seem that these feature upgrades are of the upmost importance to mobile users in 2012. Tech analysts, however, now believe that it is the inclusion of 4G LTE technology on the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 that will drive big sales for Apple in 2012.

A recent report from Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu indicates that all signs definitively point to b0th the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 getting 4G LTE treatment, based on “supply-side” information gained from industry insiders. In other words, 4G LTE components are being bought by Apple and shipped to their assembly plants.

Inrumor is reporting on some of these findings, revealing how the market is perceiving the inclusion of 4G LTE on the iPad and iPhone, and that the iPad 3 will be a crossover device that utilizes both 3G and 4G networks: “The report also speculated that the next iPad will revert to 3G tech, which doesn’t carry LTE, before the end of 2013 when analysts expect that 80% of Americans will enjoy LTE. However, Wu estimates that the technology will help boost sales.”

Wu sees this 4G flexibility as a major selling point: “We believe this significant refresh will likely help drive higher iPad sales and help further differentiate from arguably the only real competitor in the market, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and not to mention the myriad of Android offerings out there,” adding that “We are currently modeling 51 million iPad shipments for CY12 and believe this could turn out conservative.”

Wu adds that he fully expects the iPhone 5 to be 4G as well, and will benefit greatly from it: “We view the potential inclusion of 4G LTE for iPad as a positive and a good indicator that the upcoming iPhone 5 refresh in the fall time frame will likely include this key feature as well,” While I do not agree with the Fall timeframe for its release, I do agree that 4G on the iPhone 5 will make total sense, even if 4G LTE is not anticipated to go mainstream until 2013. In this way, 2012′s iPad 3 and iPhone 5 will be crossover devices that allow Apple to move into further LTE implementations, having these two models already under their belts.

By Michael Nace

With news that the Wolfram alpha search engine currently serves 25% of Siri’s search queries, one has to wonder what the future relationship between Apple and Dr. Wolfram will be — and whether Wolfram Alpha will play an even larger role on the iPhone 5 if Siri gets upgraded to the more powerful “Assistant.”

I almost jumped out of my seat in intrigue today when I scanned the iPhone 5 news and saw — in a related story — that the ingenious search engine Wolfram Alpha currently serves up 25% of Siri’s search results for the iPhone 4S. Search is a big interest of mine, and I have long argued that when Apple developed Siri, they were subversively getting into the search engine business. I wrote an article entitled “iPhone 4S’s Siri Is a Search Engine, Will Compete With Google Search” back on October 26th, thinking that it would be a poignant story that might catch fire in the blogosphere.

It didn’t.

But the news today that Apple is leveraging Wolfram Alpha in Siri search confirms (to me, at least) that Cupertino is trying to develop a new search way to search that differs from Google. From The New York Times: “Unlike Google or Microsoft’s Bing, Wolfram Alpha does not forage the Web. It culls its own painstakingly curated database to find answers.” Rather than calling it a “search engine,” Dr. Wolfram describes it as a “computational knowledge engine.” Sounds a lot like Siri, doesn’t it?

In this way, I think it is clear that Apple understands that the Wolfram Alpha approach to search — leveraging massive databases of information, rather than skimming the internet and giving users search results — is the future of search with technology like Siri, since it works more like an artificial intelligence than Google.

So, how could this news factor into the iPhone 5?

As you may recall, there have been rumors that iOS 6 will feature a new, upgraded voice recognition engine that will replace Siri. We wrote an article about it back on December 7th, wherein we reported that recent job postings at Cupertino suggested that Apple might be looking to expand Siri to the rumored “Assistant” voice recognition platform that was rumored in the Summer of 2011.

What I’m thinking here is an acquisition.

What would the chances be that Apple could make a bid to purchase the fledgling Wolfram Alpha and subsume its technology into Apple’s own data centers? Considering that Apple purchases and partners with technologies that it may or may not ever use down the line, it would seem that if Wolfram Alpha is already doing heavy lifting for Siri, the two entities could tie the knot sooner rather than later.

I have contacted Wolfram Alpha’s PR department to see if I can get some further answers to questions regarding their current relationship with Apple. We’ll see what they have to say.

In the meantime, look for Apple to become a bigger and bigger player in search, with their mobile devices leading the way as new tools for searching on the go. You read it here first.

By Michael Nace

The tablet-smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note will debut on February 19th as an AT&T 4G LTE mobile device. This all but assures that Apple will outfit the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 with 4G LTE as well.

Ever since its high-profile Super Bowl television commercial, many tech junkies have been contemplating the Samsung Galaxy Note and what effect, if any, it will have on Appledom. Features such as a sprawling 5.3-inch super AMOLED screen, 1.4GHz Dual Core Processor, and a stowable “smart pen” have all led many to wonder if this could the device that fills the tablet-smartphone gap, and whether Apple might feel obliged to answer it with a smaller “mini iPad.”

But what many are missing is the reality that AT&T is offering the Samsung Galaxy Note in 4G LTE. Take a gander at Best Buy’s product page, and you’ll see that the Galaxy Note is set to debut with the LTE option.

iPhone 5 News Blog reader Ausin brought this to my attention, and suggested how significant it really is. Thanks, Ausin!

What Ausin was getting at is the fact that, with the high profile of the Samsung Galaxy Note and the fact that AT&T is offering it as a 4G LTE device, it is just about the most definitive circumstantial evidence that we can expect both the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 to be LTE as well. While Verizon and Sprint have audaciously sought to roll out their 4G networks, AT&T’s investiture has been lower-profile. And considering that the AT&T network is still considered to be the gold standard network for the iPhone, many feel that their willingness to onboard 4G LTE devices would in large part dictate Apple’s own move into 4G LTE for its mobile devices.

Apple would be hard-pressed to justify passing on 4G LTE for both the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 in 2012, now that the Samsung Galaxy Note will go LTE on AT&T. Read More

The iPhone 3GS has had a great run, with many users singing its praises even today. But all indications are that the 3GS will be officially retired once the iPhone 5 debuts this year.

It can be argued that the iPhone 3GS ushered in the modern smartphone experience as we know it. While the original iPhone and 3G laid the groundwork, it was the performance level of the 3GS that set the new benchmark for what we have come to expect from smartphones. Though the iPhone 4, 4S, and a host of Android smartphones outpace the 3GS now in performance, it is telling that, some three years after its release, you can still purchase an iPhone 3GS.

But the trusty iPhone 3GS will most likely be finally fading into the ether.

An article from Gotta Be Mobile notes that: “We think that Apple may be killing off the iPhone 3GS because it has told developers to only send screenshots of apps with a Retina Display resolution or higher.” this of course would mean that Apple is not looking to address the software of the iPhone 3GS and its 480 x 320 display.

If you’ve been a steady reader of this blog, then you will recall that we discussed at length the retirement of the iPhone 3GS last Summer, with fire sales and promotions seemingly marking its end. With many assuming that Apple was going to release both an iPhone 5 and 4S, the assumption was that there would be no room for the 3GS — it would be improbable to imagine four iPhone models being offered at the same time.

Once the iPhone 5 debuts in 2012, we will have finally crossed that 4 model threshold. It’s hard to imagine the 3GS and the iPhone 5 coexisting in the Apple catalog. And not only because of performance disparity: there have been reports suggesting that the new iPhone 5 form factor could harken back to the more rounded, convex aesthetics of the 3GS. As a result, Apple might want to ensure that users don’t see the iPhone 5 as overly derivative of the 3GS when compared side by the side.

Regardless of whether or not the iPhone 3GS survives through 2012, there is no doubt that it marks the beginning of Apple’s historic rise in developing the leading design for the smartphone market.

By Michael Nace

Samsung’s uniquely large 5.3-inch screen, top-tier smartphone features, and crossover market position targets Apple customers who lament the long wait for the next iPhone and the reality that the iPad 3 will most likely not come in smaller sizes.

Let me be clear: I’m no fan of Android smartphones. They are notoriously unreliable mobile devices, often plagued by crashing apps and poor performance. And to me, more important than cool features and a slick look is a reliable smartphone that makes and holds phone calls and operates seamlessly.

That being said, one thing I have always appreciated about Android is that its panoply of smartphone design partners allow for a wide range of innovation: while Cupertino gives us very concentrated bursts of innovations each year with its iPhone and iPad iterations, Android’s innovative offering are more diffuse and consistent. With Android, you can get an ultra-thin, ultra-small smartphone alla the Razr, a quirky dual-screen design such as the Kyrocera Echo, or a more full-bodied smartphone in the Samsung Galaxy S series.

The first quarter of 2012 is seeing the release of the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note, a unique Android-based smartphone that straddles both mobile phone and tablet designs. With its beefy 5.3-inch screen, 1.5 GHz dual core processor, 16 GB of internal memory, an SD card reader, 4G connectivity. and even a recessed stylus pen, it is basically a conflation of the dreams of a disillusioned Apple devoteé who dreams of overhauled iPhone and a sub-9.7 inch iPad 3, all wrapped up in a release date that will preempt both the iPad 3 and the next iPhone.

Samsung is already taking orders.

With the Galaxy Note, Samsung has triangulated nearly every competitive niche in mobile computing. Their Super Bowl television ad, depicting demoralized iPhone users waiting endlessly in line outside of what looks like a thinly veiled Apple store, seeks to attract both the iPhone and iPad segments. The commercial even highlights a front-facing camera, matching the iPhone note for note. But the screen size and price of the Samsung Galaxy Note — $299 with a 2-year contract — also seeks to compete with the smaller 7-inch Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire as well. It is basically a catch-all mobile device that can wedge itself into virtually every price and product niche, save for ultra-small smartphones.

Will the Samsung Galaxy Note gambit work?

Probably not. The Galaxy Note might be the insurgent smartphone of 2012, but its buzz will be short-lived, once the iPad 3 debuts. The Galaxy Note officially goes on sale February 19th. It is very possible that a month after that, we will be preparing for the iPad 3 release. And given the fact that the iPad 2 was essentially a refresh, the iPad 3 promises to deliver big on new and as-yet-unforeseen features that will most likely not be a pastiche of the Galaxy Note.

And after that, we’ll have the new iPhone, most likely in June.

The biggest gap that Samsung has to cross in getting its Galaxy Note to the level of an iPhone or iPad is coolness. You’ll recall the infamous quote from Samsung’s U.S. CEO’s daughter trying to convince her father that the Galaxy series was way cooler than the iPhone, a notion that virtually no one bought into. Even Samsung wasn’t buying it, which is why the overarching theme of their super Bowl ad is to show that the Galaxy Note is way cooler than the iPhone.

In addition, let’s go back to how I opened this article: savvy smartphone users already know of the sketchy nature of the Android platform. For as much as the uniqueness of the Galaxy Note might be alluring, hardcore tech junkies will also envision the sheer frustration of their Galaxy Note fast becoming a paperweight on their desk, replaced by a reliable, new iPhone and/or iPad 3 just a few months down the line.

Of course, we’ll have to wait and see what the reviews for the Samsung Galaxy Note bear out; the thing has yet to really be vetted by the tech media. But for as much as it might fulfill some of our wildest dreams for the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, the Galaxy Note is still, after all, an Android.

By Michael Nace