Apple’s eagerly awaited update of its popular iPhone smartphone,
informally dubbed the iPhone 5 by the media, will officially debut in
October, according to an analyst note
obtained by
Mac-centric blog AppleInsider. Sterne Agee analyst Shawn Wu wrote in a
research note that the iPhone would also include support for China
Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G network, which boasts more than 650 million mobile
subscribers—China Mobile is the world’s largest cellular operator,
suggesting Apple is working to position the latest iPhone as a global
device.
Wu also wrote that the iPhone will include greater support for
Chinese customers through the iOS 6 operating system and digital
concierge Siri, with the ability to understand and respond in Mandarin
and Cantonese, as well as overall greater integration for Chinese social
networking sites like Baidu. Among the other enhancements will be a
slightly larger screen size, 4G LTE wireless modem and a general
redesign, Wu noted. "We believe these new features will likely help
drive a significant upgrade and new user cycle more powerful than what
we saw with the iPhone 4 and 4S," he wrote in the investor note.
Before the debut of the new phone, which would come a year after the
latest update of the iPhone, the 4S, Wu said Apple could sell up to 27
million iPhones in the June quarter, and see sales dip to 25 million in
the September quarter. "This is more of a function of the transition
ahead of the upcoming 6th generation iPhone refresh likely in October
timeframe as opposed to weak demand," he wrote.
For iPhone owners who are planning to upgrade to the latest edition
(whenever it actually lands on store shelves), they may be faced with a
new connector for plugging in the smartphone—technology blog TechCrunch
said
this week that they had independently confirmed the latest iPhone will
drop the 30-pin port for a 19-pin port. The report sent a shockwave
through the Web, angering many longtime Apple fans who felt they would
now have to replace any and all iPhone accessories to fit the new
port—Apple has used the 30-pin design on all mobile devices since the
third generation iPod music player.
The launch of the latest iPhone will also likely coincide with the
release of the updated iOS 6 mobile operating system, which Apple
previewed at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this
month. Among the 200 features added to the mobile OS are an updated
Siri, Facebook integration for Contacts and Calendar, and a new Passbook
app, as well as the introducing of a maps application that will replace
Google Maps with Apple’s own in-house platform. The app will feature
real-time traffic information and data—for local searches—on more than
100 million businesses, including info cards tied to Yelp ratings,
reviews, photos and deals.
