With the official announcement of a new iPhone expected to come on June 8th at Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco we thought it about time to give you our insights on what we think we’ll see from the next-generation king of the touchscreens.
With everyone and their dog having an iPhone there’s been no shortage of rumour and hearsay concerning what we might see on a new device; OLED displays, uprated camera, faster Wi-Fi, a host of new functionality with OS 3.0. And as for the handset itself, we’ve heard it all from a Nano-style shrunken device to a full QWERTY totin’ piece of kit.
Now let’s get one thing straight, all we’ve really got here is an opinion, an idea, a mere musing on what we think might show up in the next chapter of the iPhone story. And in my opinion it’s not going to be a whole lot different from what we’ve got now.
When Apple launched the iPhone the immediate success was impressive to say the least and for what that has gone on to become (in mobile terms) is monumental, but the Cupertino-based company have a track record of tweaking its success stories rather than redesigning the wheel, twice.
To that end we expect that the next-gen handset will look mostly the same as the current device – it’ll probably lose a bit of weight and squeeze itself into a slightly slimmer and trimmer casing but apart from that its likely to look pretty darn similar. Maybe we’ll see some new colour schemes, in fact just today we came across rumours of a pink version destined for our stores.
We’ve already got a fair idea what’s going to be in store from the new handset OS-wise thanks to Apple’s official unveiling of version 3.0 last month. It’s expected to bring a whole host of long overdue features, which to be honest have been a minor embarrassment for Apple thus far, not that you’d notice from the sales.
Some of the most discussed features (only some of which have been confirmed so far) for the new OS include:
- MMS messaging
- Cut & Paste functionality
- Video Recording support
- A2DP Bluetooth support
- Voice Control & Voice Memos
- Radio transmitter as well as receiver
A bunch of other goodies have been discovered hidden in the beta code released to developers and I’m not going to spoil the surprise or list every one, but one that definitely piqued my interest was a ‘Locate My Phone’ function which looks like it will be a part of the MobileMe service. Presumably for use if your handset is lost or stolen and which will then utilise the on-board GPS to let you know exactly where it is, putting an end to those "so when did you last see it?" conversations that inevitably arise whenever you tell anyone that you’ve lost something.
Hardware hop-ups that we expect to see aboard the next good-ship iPhone are on the modest side; beefed up 3G to the 7.2Mbps range, a superior camera (though hopefully more than the rumoured 3.2-megapixels) and Draft-N compatible Wi-Fi, meaning faster data transfers.
Behind the scenes there will almost certainly be a faster processor and larger memory options, with at least one 32GB, or larger, SKU available from launch.
On the topic of SKUs, some analysts predict that Apple will launch multiple versions of the next iPhone in a bid to reach an even wider segment of the market; perhaps launching a standard and a ‘Nano’ handset or perhaps just one cut down version to appeal to buyers at the lower end of the smartphone market. Whether or not we will see differentiated versions of the next iPhone, or specifically whether individual regions will get multiple versions of the handset is yet to be seen.
Whatever is revealed on June 8th is likely to be a polishing of the very successful formula that Apple has struck upon this far, after all, it can’t change the hardware too much as all the apps need to be compatible with both the old and new handsets – to disrupt the momentum of the iTunes app store right now would be commercial insanity given that Apple is looking forward to celebrating its billionth app store download – and all within a year of launching the service for iPhone & Touch devices.
We have our suspicions though that whatever the iPhone is capable of at launch will not be the end of the story. Many electrical items come with a certain degree of built in obsolescence to ensure future viability and expansion and it’s not as if Apple haven’t done it before.
Come June 8th I’ll be waiting here in full hat-eating mode if Apple announce a redesigned handset that is in any way a departure from the current form. Perhaps, in the shape of a triangle. With toast making functionality and enhanced traffic warden detection. Now that I’d like to see.
How about you? What do you expect to see, or more importantly, what would you like to see? Let us know in the box below!