iPhone 5 Predictions
Brain dump on the “iPhone 5″ — likely dropping sometime in October. All the rumors I’ve read indicate the expected: faster chip, slightly bigger screen, better camera, maybe more storage, and a different design. It will probably be “universal,” ending the slightly different models for AT&T and Verizon.
What that adds up to in my mind, is an “incremental” upgrade — something along the lines of the 3GS as compared to the 3G. Great if you never got the iPhone 4, but I don’t believe most iPhone 4 owners (myself included) will feel an uncontrollable urge to upgrade.
There is one wild card however. NFC. Or in more practical terms, tech that would turn your iPhone into a credit card, or provide interesting interactions between other iDevices, Macs, and your Apple TV.
Most of the recent rumors predict no NFC in iPhone 5 for 2011, but it would be a coup if it arrived this year. The recent announcement of Google Wallet indicates that Apple’s NFC implementation is inevitable. It’s just a matter of this fall or next year. Part of me thinks it would be better for Apple to wait to make the rollout as universal as possible. But maybe they could announce the NFC stuff with other Apple products and roll out the credit card aspect later.
Other than that, I don’t think a personal upgrade from an iPhone 4 to 5 (or 4S) is in the cards. Next year…
[…] When I mused on the iPhone 5 / 4S a few posts ago, I mentioned NFC as one wildcard — well, another I didn’t think of at the time is Apple’s long-rumored voice recognition assistant. […]