Rumour No.2 of the day: the iPhone 5 won't be called the iPhone 5 (actually, we've been saying that for months): instead, according to a note from Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Mise, it's going to be called the "iPhone 4S".
Hmm, well, we'd been hearing "iPhone 4G". But you can see the etymology: there was the first iPhone, and then the iPhone 3G (because it had, aha, 3G capability) and then the iPhone 3GS (because it was speedy) and then the iPhone 4, because it really looked very different from either of the iPhone 3 siblings.
Word that's filtering out is that the iPhone 4G/S won't look much different from its immediate predecessor, and that it won't either have a number of other features: no LTE (Long-Term Evolution, otherwise known as 4G connectivity), no NFC (Near Field Communications), though it will have better cameras, a faster processor and HSPA+ (a faster 3G) support.
Misek also suggests that the next iPhone will be launched on US carriers Sprint and T-Mobile, to add to the AT&T and Verizon deals it already has. That makes sense in that now Apple can offer a CDMA version, it can cover all the US carriers. Plus Misek suggests it will be sold on China Telecom (a CDMA carrier). Those two countries together constitute two of the biggest smartphone markets in the world.
Plus one other thing: why are all these rumours about forthcoming iPhones filtering out now, in May, a few weeks ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference where it is expected to talk about the next version of iOS, if there's not going to be anything to see? The rumour mill being what it is, the feeling is growing that there is, after all, going to be an iPhone hardware refresh in the next couple of months. That's the sort of conclusion you would draw anyway on seeing people such as Orange offering iPhone 3GS phones "free for just £25 per month for a limited time" - the sort of tactic that one expects to see when a company (Apple) is emptying out the sales channel and preparing to put something new in.
Remember the adage of Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, presently in day-to-day charge of the company: stock is like milk - if it takes too long to reach the customer, it goes off. Is it time for a fresh delivery... at the Worldwide Developers Conference on 6 June?
