The word on the tech street is that the iPhone 5S could come in different screen sizes and there are possible delays to the iPad 5’s release.
The next iPhone off the rank, commonly believed to be the iPhone 5S, would be launched in July with a range of screen sizes and colours, CNET is reporting.
Topeka analyst Brian White told the news site he believed the phone would launch in two or possibly three different screen sizes, stating that he believed Apple was “coming around” to the fact that one size per iPhone release did not work for everyone, and offering an option had the potential to expand the company’s market share.
The iPhone 4 and 4S screens are 3.5 inches, and the iPhone 5 is 4 inches.
Different names for different size iPhones?
Ovum analyst Tony Cripps told What Mobile that, based on how Apple previously named its products, phones with different sized screens would have different names.
“If there were two different screen sizes of iPhones, my assumption in advance would be that they wouldn’t both be called the iPhone 5S, there might be some additional thing that they might use to indicate one over the other, for instance.”
White believed the new iPhone was likely to launch in July, CNET reported, with other analysts also picking July, or June.
Cripps said it wouldn’t be surprising to see Apple launch another device mid-year or soon after, with other manufacturers such as Samsung able to capitalise on shorter product cycles and bring forward launches if they thought it was beneficial from a go-to-market point of view.
CNET pointed out that White also predicted possibly multi-coloured iPhone 5S units, including pink (?!), yellow, blue, white & silver, black & slate.
Cripps said this was not very ‘Apple’ historically, but it was more common in their iPod devices, which was a possible precedent.
iPad 5
A supposed leak of the upcoming iPad 5’s bezel shows a design more similar to the Mini than the iPad 4, TechRadar is reporting.
The pictures, from a supposed Chinese mole on Nowhereelse.fr, show the front of the rumoured new iPad in production, which has also been rumoured to be delayed until July or August, however.
MacWorld is reporting that the newer iPad was rumoured to be thinner and lighter and not to be launched until July or August this year, according to Taiwanese sources via DigiTimes.