Rumors are constantly circulating the web of the iPhone 5. I recently talked to one of my friends who works at Verizon Wireless and he told me how sales have slowed down with folks holding on to their upgrades with the anticipation of the iPhone 5. What will the iPhone 5 have? Bigger screen? Larger storage capacity? Hit the jump to check out some recent rumors.
Can the iPhone 5 cost $399 with 128GB of storage?
Cost of a 128GB iPhone
Cost is the biggest factor that could prevent Apple from introducing a 128GB iPhone 5. According to iSuppli, Flash storage is responsible for most of the cost difference to Apple.
The price of 64GB Flash memory is $76.80, 32GB Flash memory is $38.40 and 16GB Flash memory is $19.20.
Even if advances bring the price of Flash memory down, Apple would need to charge a premium for a 128GB iPhone 5 or eat a larger portion of the cost if it retailed for $399.
Smaller 128GB Flash Chips
This February Samsung, a manufacturer Apple works with for parts of the iPhone, announced the smallest 128GB NAND Flash memory chip. These chips are smaller than a penny, and are already ramping up into high production.
Silver Lining in the Cloud?
The cloud could help alleviate some of the storage woes without the need for a 128GB iPhone 5. PhotoStream currently stores the last 1,000 photos taken, but if it stored more photos and included videos, users could rely on the cloud more.
4g LTE speeds will also help users call up photos and videos on the go, even with 4G LTE data caps.
Apps currently can’t benefit from the cloud, but if Apple would allow OnLive for the iPad and other services that stream games instead of storing the assets and processing locally, the iPhone and iPad could be used to play higher quality games without the need for massive amounts of storage.
Finally A Larger Screen?
iPhone fans are set for a visual feast as rumours emerge that Apple’s next offering will have a screen which is half an inch bigger than previous versions.
The technology giant has begun to place orders for the new displays from suppliers in South Korea and Japan, sources said today.
The new iPhone screens will measure 4 inches from corner to corner, one source said. That would represent a roughly 30 percent increase in viewing area, assuming Apple kept other dimensions proportional.
Apple has used a 3.5-inch screen since introducing the iPhone in 2007.
Early production of the new screens has begun at three suppliers: Korea’s LG Display Co Ltd, Sharp Corp and Japan Display Inc, a Japanese government-brokered merger combining the screen production of three companies.
It is likely all three of the screen suppliers will get production orders from Apple, which could begin as soon as June. That would allow the new iPhone to go into production as soon as August, if the company follows its own precedent in moving from orders for prototypes for key components to launch.
Apple’s decision to equip the next iPhone with a larger screen represents part of a competitive response to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Samsung unveiled its top-of-the line Galaxy smartphone with a 4.8-inch touch-screen and a faster processor earlier this month.
Samsung, which this year became the world’s largest cell phone maker, sold 45 million smartphones in the first quarter, and sales of the Galaxy phones outstripped the iPhone.
How Has The iPhone 5 Effect Mobile Sales Growth In 2012?
Worldwide mobile phone sales have declined for the first time since 2009, with consumers choosing to wait for Apple’s next iPhone before upgrading, according to analyst firm Gartner.
Gartner revealed the market decrease on Wednesday in its latest quarterly report. The research claims that 419.1 million mobile phone units were sold in the first quarter of 2012, marking a two per cent decline from the same period in 2011.
Analysts at Gartner claimed that the lull is largely due to an unexpected downturn in the Asian markets.
“We were not expecting a slowdown in Asia. China is usually a particularly big market in the first quarter, with the Chinese New Year normally leading to a sales boom,” Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta told V3.
“But this year consumers have held off upgrading, waiting for other high end devices, like the new Apple iPhone.”
Gupta went on to warn that the promise of a new iPhone will continue to impact phone sales, including those of Samsung and Apple itself, which both enjoyed solid quarters despite the overall downturn.
“Samsung has done well to generate consumer interest the same way Apple does around its iPhone devices, but it’s still not about the S3,” said Gupta.
“It’s the iPhone fall release that’s important. The promise of a new iPhone will likely affect all Q2 and Q3 sales, probably even impacting sales of Apple’s current iPhone 4S.”
The prophesied downturn comes despite an increase in the smartphone market, with Gartner reporting sales of the high-end devices reaching 144.4 million units during Q1 2012, marking a 44.7 per cent year-over-year increase.
The increase was led by Samsung, which overtook Nokia to become the world’s top handset vendor, enjoying a 25.9 per cent increase in sales.
Samsung also beat Apple in smartphone sales, with its Android-based smartphone accounting for more than 40 per cent of all Android-based Q1 smartphone sales worldwide.
Apple also had a good quarter despite losing out to Samsung, seeing a 96.2 per cent growth in smartphone sales.
Gartner claims that the two companies’ growth means that Apple and Samsung smartphone sales account for a massive 49.3 per cent of the entire market. In the same quarter last year, the two only held a 29.3 per cent share.
Apple has offered no official information on its next iPhone, though a number of unsubstantiated rumours and leaked photos have already emerged.
