Next-Gen iPhone Predictions

Sun, Apr 27, 2008

The next-gen iPhone is highly rumored to be coming out at the World Wide Developer Convention on June 9th. Here are the some big supporting rumors that you probably have already heard:

Internal memo from UK carrier O2 states:
“Due to the highly successful sales of the Apple 8GB iPhone, supply chains have run out of stock and will not be replenishing stock of this product as it has now gone to end of life.”
CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson confirmed a 2008 ship date of a 3G iPhone.
Zibri from ZiPhone spotted some code in the new iPhone 2.0 beta software that suggests Apple will use the Infineon 3G chipset.
Many Apple stores around the world are running out of iPhones.
Walt Mossberg stated that their would be a new iPhone in 60 days on April 6th (he then took it back saying he has no idea when it will happen).
Steve Jobs said it himself that there will be a 3G iPhone some day.

With all these rumors in mind there is really no way that you can deny that the 3G iPhone will be released sooner or later. Now, the only thing to speculate is the details.

I belive that since the iPhone did so well and had the highest customer satisfaction rate out of any Apple product, there will not be many major changes. The biggest change of course will be 3G. The rest will be minor.

I think the design will change. The reason I think that is because the aluminum and bezel scratch way to much. Apple must go for a new design that eliminates the easy scratches of the back and sides of the phone. I think something like this:

This not only looks much better than the aluminum look, but gets rid of the possibility of scratches. As for the front of the iPhone, I don’t think anything will change.

Apple will also include true GPS. I consider this a minor change because it only involves one app, maps.app, while 3G affects any app trying to reach the internet. True GPS is so easily accessibly, that is has already been done with an external chip:

All that apple has to do is add this chip and make sure maps.app can recognize it and use it. The only disadvantage is that it makes the iPhone a little be bulkier. At the same time, it is too easy to leave out.

Storage may change, but I’m not sure. The only possibility is the storage by two. This means the base product would be 16Gb and the level up would be 32GB. Either this will happen, or nothing will change with storage.

Along with all of this, iPhone firmware 2.0 will be released and people will be able to download apps from the app store. All of this makes the next-gen iPhone, which will still be called an “iPhone.”

Share and Enjoy: