Apple's iPhone 5 will include a curved glass display, perhaps similar to that of the Google Nexus S, according to a new online report.
Apple's iPhone 5 will feature a curved-glass touch-screen
display, according to a new DigiTimes report.
"Cover glass makers are reluctant to commit investment to
the purchase of glass cutting equipment due to the high capital involved," according to
the
May 23 report, citing unnamed sources. "Apple reportedly has purchased
200-300 glass cutting machines to be used by glass cutters."
Those machines are supposedly stored at various assembly
plants in anticipation of covered-glass production ramping to acceptable
levels. DigiTimes also hints that Apple is partnering with its suppliers over manufacturing processes such
as glass-cutting and lamination.
One of the iPhone's recent rivals, the Google Nexus S,
debuted in December 2010 with a screen curved ever-so-slightly inwards. At the
time, Google claimed the display "fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and
along the side of your face." The Dell Venue Pro, a smartphone running Windows
Phone 7, also features a curved display-albeit slightly outwards, perhaps in a
bid to broaden its range of visibility.
Other rumors have suggested Apple is prepping an
edge-to-edge screen for the next iPhone. Those reports stem from an "iPhone 5G"
case offered on Chinese manufacturer Kulcase's Alibaba.com Website, which was
noticed by Electronista and subsequently picked up by Apple-centric blogs such
as
Apple
Insider.
Still more scuttlebutt suggests that, no, the next iPhone
will feature only incremental upgrades, even as it appears on a broader set of
carriers.
"We believe the likelihood of the iPhone 5 launch in
September including LTE [Long-Term Evolution] is now remote," Jefferies &
Co. analyst Peter Misek wrote in a May 13 research note. "According to our
industry checks, the device should be called iPhone 4S and include minor
cosmetic changes, better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ [Evolved
High-Speed Packet Access] support."
That note also claimed that, based on "industry checks,"
Sprint, T-Mobile and China Mobile will be announced as new iPhone carriers in
time for the holiday season: "On Apple's last earnings call, management
responded to a question about launching the CDMA [Code Division Multiple
Access] iPhone at other carriers as -we are constantly looking and adding where
it makes sense, and you can keep confidence that we'll continue to do that.'"
AT&T and Verizon remain the only two U.S. carriers of
the iPhone at the moment. Despite AT&T's plans to acquire T-Mobile for $39
billion in cash and stock, the smaller carrier has denied it will carry the
iPhone in the short term."
As always, Apple's tight in-house secrecy creates a vacuum
in which even the most fanciful rumors can flourish to full live. That being
said, the latest surrounding the iPhone 5 should probably be taken with a
dump-truck-sized grain of salt until the company makes an official
announcement.
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