What’s in store for iPhone 5S?

Release
Even though the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 were released at the tail end of the year, the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 had summer releases. After looking at Apple production line levels for the current iPhone 5, as well as other information such as manufacturer Foxconn employment levels – it seems a mid-summer release is most likely. Much of the work at hand is said to be on existing production lines – hence the likelihood of an iPhone 5S rather than an iPhone6.

Features
According to the rumour mill, the new device will come with an OGZO screen, allowing it to be brighter, slimmer and also to have a higher resolution than the iPhone 5’s. In addition, two or three different screen sizes have also been rumoured. This would be to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S4, while still keep current customers who prefer the small screen size happy.

Capacity
The devices capacity may be increased to 128GB – this is based on the recent doubling of the high end iPad from 64GB to 128GB. Whether this comes about for the new iPhone we will have to wait and see.

NFC
Near Field Communication has been adopted by a range of Android phones and it looks likely that it will be included in the new device. A finger print reader to aid security during mobile payments is also touted. This may see Apple integrate a digital wallet into its Passbook app allowing it to compete with Google Wallet.

Worldwide 4G
One of the issues with the current device is that although it has 4G, it’s a different sort for each region in the world. We imagine Apple will provide worldwide 4G in the next phone.

Design
Apple tends to leave intermittent devices alone when it comes to redesign and as this is most likely an iPhone 5s, we don’t expect to see any significant design changes. However, that doesn’t mean that all is quiet on a new device design. A number of ‘trusted sources’ are claiming new colours may be added, while some even suggest a redesign under Tim Cook, as this is his first device fully at the helm. We’d imagine a change in colour is far more likely than an overhaul.

IOS7
Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head designer, is said to be working on a new IOS. Supposedly, the new OS will be a move away from anything seen before and will bring in new features to compete with Android and Windows.

Low Cost iPhone
Apple’s devices are in the luxury consumer device sphere and so anecdotes of a cheaper and more affordable device have been heavily suggested. Android phones sell for pittance in comparison and though these low cost devices don’t often offer the quality, they are still making significant inroads into developing markets. Only 1 in 20 phones in China uses IOS, while the vast majority uses Android. Apple may hope to change this with a new low cost iPhone.

Like any Apple iPhone release, only the release itself will tell what the phone is going to be like when it’s released. We’ll have to wait.

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