Apple's iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE connectivity, according to a new DigiTimes report. Speculation about the next iPhone is already well under way.
Apples next iPhone will support 4G Long-Term
Evolution (LTE) connectivity, according to a new report by
DigiTimes.
A new version of iPhone to be launched
in the second half of 2012 is very likely to support LTE as well, suggested
the publications March 12 article, which cited unnamed smartphone makers
based in Taiwan.
While the DigiTimes track record is
sometimes spotty when it comes to Apple rumors, the appearance of 4G LTE on the
latest iPad is nonetheless a strong indicator that the next iPhone will follow
suit.
During the New York City unveiling of
the
iPhone 4 on Verizon in January 2011, then-Apple
COO and current CEO Tim Cook suggested that adapting the device to LTE would
have resulted in compromises that Apple refused to make. In the year-plus
since that event, Apples engineers have presumably wrestled with the best way
to install a 4G LTE antenna in a small form factor without compromising its
design or performance.
Although the next iPhones release is
almost certainly many months away, rumors about the devices possible features
have been drifting around the blogosphere since late last year. In January,
Apple-centric blog
9to5Mac reported that the iPhone 5 will feature
a bigger screen and a redesigned casing. That report cited a reliable source
at Foxconn in China, referring to the factory where iPhones are made.
Over the summer of 2011, analysts and
pundits seemed certain the company would release an iPhone 5 with a radically
altered design and powerful new hardware. In October, however, Apple executives
unveiled the iPhone 4S, whose exterior seemed virtually identical to the iPhone
4. Despite that similarity, a collection of new featuresincluding Siri, a
voice-activated digital personal assistantquickly helped the new smartphone
become a bestseller.
For its fiscal first quarter ended Dec.
31, Apple reported sales of some 27.04 million iPhones. During the Jan. 24
earnings call, Cook attributed the iPhones robust sales numbers to a
combination of what he called breathtaking customer reception as well as
pent-up demand from a particularly long gap between new iPhone releases.
In order to sustain that sort of sales
run, inevitably Apple will need to release a next-generation iPhone capable of
matching or surpassing rival devices running Google Android and Windows Phone.
That could very well mean the next iPhone comes with 4G LTE support.
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