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iPhone 5 set for shelves this September

More of the same?

The iPhone 5 rumour mill is in full swing this morning after reports that the much-anticipated device will go into production this July, for shipping in September.

With the sale of the white iPhone 4 anticipated this week, the focus is now to the next version of the handset, which, according to a Reuters report last night, will be on the shelves in early autumn. The insiders who leaked the news declined to be identified though, as plans are not yet public. Oops.

These details go against previous claims that those waiting for an iPhone 5 would have to do so until 2012.

According to AppleInsider reports earlier this week, the iPhone 6 will see a 2012 release and it surmises the iPhone 5 is more an iPhone 4GS rather than heralding a whole new generation of handset. That would back up the design in some of the 'engineering schematics' that surfaced last month too. 4in edge-to-edge display? 12Mp camera?

Official details are expected June 6-10, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Until then, the speculation continues... ®

You do

"And....and.....oh really does anyone really still have any enthusiasm for iPhones? Zzzzzzzz..."

First poster on in iPhone comments thread but no interest... You poor conflicted soul.

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re: Hmmm....

"With NFC on the horizon and already starting to appear in the very newest handsets, if the iPhone lacks this feature it will dent sales a tad."

I'm not sure it'll make any difference on sales. I'm into my gadgets and technology and I can't really think of anything I actually want to do with NFC on my phone. I'm pretty sure that "normal" phone buyers will care even less. Don't get me wrong, if it is put into other handsets and becomes something that people rely on day to day, my opinion will change, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

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Anonymous Coward

@Jim

The claim Apple made was that current 4" devices were too big. Which I agree, even holding them in hand looks a bit silly, let alone pocketing them in some tighter jeans.

If they managed to fit a 4" screen in the same size as the current iP4 (difficult as they'd only have 1mm of clearance on either side, at the current 1.33 ratio and device size) I don't see how it would be a problem.

As for the resolution keeping the same would mean resolution would drop to 289 dpi, which is certainly lower than the current device, but since work by Curcio et al (1990) put this "retina" value at 287 dpi, they won't be lying if they still call it "Retina display".

And yes I think there's a lot of enthusiasm, seeing how both the industry is salivating for details and even apparently uninterested commenters jump to the chance of posting.

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RE: Hmmm....

"if the iPhone lacks this feature it will dent sales a tad"

You've not been paying much attention to their previous strategy and the response of the target demographic, have you?

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Well...

I dread to say it aloud, but: Even with its rather yesteryear CPU the current iPhone is still one of the best and fastest smartphones with a smooth and stutter-free interface, hi-res screen, good camera, good battery life and a rather timeless non-plastic design. Just putting in a dual-core CPU should be enough to be good for another year and no changes to the general design will make all current iPhone users happy since they don't feel left behind as much then.

Apple really can't do much wrong here, I think. The current crop of Android phones is not exactly making leaps. Faster CPUs and GPUs help a bit with minimizing UI stutter (and Android is still not perfect here), screens are good but not better than the iPhone's, battery life is mostly worse... I do not expect many changes in the market, really.

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