After the CES in Las Vegas, there’s so much focus on Apple’s next tablet, the iPad 2.0, which will likely be slimmer, faster, boast better graphic, host dual-camera and lighter. But, what we should expect from the iPhone 5.0? What new features can we get when the phone ships in the summer of fall of 2010?
It is rumored that Apple has added Epistar, GCE, Foxlink and Foxconn as component suppliers. Foster, a Japanese company was initially given the contract to supply the earphone, but it was assigned to Foxconn due to the strengthening of the Yen, while the earphone jack socket will be produced by Foxlink.
Unimicron Technology and Compeq Manufacturing are the suppliers of HDI boards, but due to the lack of supply, GCE will also supply the component.
We also have learned that the iPhone 5 will use Qualcomm baseband chip from Kinsus Interconnect technology, which is likely a GSM/CDMA chip. It means users can bring the phone when traveling in countries that predominantly use CDMA networks. It also means that users can choose between AT&T’s GSM network or Verizon’s CDMA network. Apple will be able to use a single device to reach both networks and potentially increase its profit margin.
The phone will be powered by the A5 processor, based on ARM’s Cortex A9 architecture. It is a multi-core processor, which promises a significant speed improvement. Rumor has it that the phone will use SGX543 graphic core, which allows HDMI quality output and 1080p video recording.
The new graphic solution supports OpenCL, a technology that allows iPhone 5’s CPU to offload some of its tasks to the GPU, if necessary. It means the GPU can act as a secondary CPU, even when the calculations assigned are not related to graphics. Developers of third-party apps may not need to rewrite their current apps, to fully utilize the GPU, because the GPU’s parallelism works at the hardware level that doesn’t require inputs from the software level.
The iOS 4.3 in iPhone 5 will have “Media Stream”, which is an Apple’s next move to the social networking. It is essentially a photo gallery, which allows people you trust to subscribe. There is a rumor of another feature called iGroups that might suggest a location-based social network. The new iOS version will force users to use five-finger gestures and there may not be a big physical Home button.
iPhone 5 may have NFC feature, that will make transaction with merchants easier. You should also look forward to better image and video capture CCDs, camera flash and better external antenna design.
Mac OS X Lion will be released on Q2 2011 and it may offer compelling features to the iPad2 and iPhone 5 that will not be available in Windows. This is certainly Apple’s attempt to stimulate Mac sales, to iPad and iPhone owners who still use non-Mac computers. As a conclusion, iPhone 5 may act as:
- A phone,
- A map,
- A compass,
- An email, social networks and texts management device
- A games machine,
- An internet appliance,
- A wallet,
- A platform for third-party apps
- A thin client for Mac
- A video and still camera,
- A pocket calculator,
- A pedometer,
- A car key
- An airplane boarding pass.
The above function may not be groundbreaking, but the iPhone 5 will certainly deliver them better. With its powerful CPU and graphic solution, the new phone may eventually support 3D games, with graphic quality similar to Nintendo 3DS titles.
Currently, iPhone 5 is already being tested and in use by senior executives in the Cupertino.