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NYT: Apple 'just weeks away' from announcing 'fairly different' iPhone 5

Apple is "just weeks away" from announcing a fifth-generation iPhone that will be fairly different from the iPhone 4, both on the inside and outside, according to a new report.

"We’re just weeks away from the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 5, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly for the company," Nick Bilton wrote in a report for The New York Times.

His sources within Apple also said case designs that recently surfaced online "seemed potentially authentic." The designs, which were quickly taken down, depicted a next-generation iPhone with curved sides, a flat back, and a mute switch moved to the right side of the handset.

According to an Apple engineer "familiar with the new iPhone," the company's next handset will be "fairly different" from the previous generation. The source also confirmed the widely-held belief that the device will sport an 8-megapixel camera and the faster A5 processor currently found in the iPad 2.

Bilton also reiterated his earlier report that cited "two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Apple’s next-generation iPhones" as saying either the fifth- or sixth-generation iPhone will include a near-field communication chip from Qualcomm, possibly to add mobile payment functionality.


Alleged iPhone 5 case designs from Case-Mate, via BGR.

Apple has expressed a keen interest in NFC technology in the past. On Thursday, AppleInsider uncovered a patent application that proposed using passive radio-frequency identification to transmit information about hardware failures. The company has also investigated more standard uses of NFC, such as e-wallet and tag reader functionality.

It should be noted that the "just weeks away" timeframe provided by the Times is hardly new. Numerous reports have suggested that the iPhone 5 will arrive by mid-October. Earlier this week, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities told AppleInsider that the golden master of iOS 5 is scheduled to be released to assemblers during the last week of September in preparation for release by the middle of October.



70 Comments

thrang 18 Years · 1051 comments

If the new iPhone doesn't have a larger screen, who would be disappointed?

I think I would -

robert.public 16 Years · 22 comments

small iPad 2? I'll get it, since I only have a 3g ((

rec 15 Years · 216 comments

The case design looks like it will be a mini-iPad 2. I don't think this is all that surprising. The iPad 2 represents Apple's current design thinking and aesthetic, and they've never had a faster selling or more popular device. It would stand to reason that everything in the product line would want to take on some amount of the iPad 2 look and feel.

robin huber 23 Years · 4040 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by thrang

If the new iPhone doesn't have a larger screen, who would be disappointed?

I think I would -

Me too. Same size case with a little more screen territory would be just fine.

sheff 16 Years · 1407 comments

These look Pretty damn similar to iPod touch 4th gen.