We round-up the many rumors surrounding the iPhone 5, including the possibility of an iPhone Nano, keyboard, 4-inch screen, A8 chip, NFC, 4G, GSM-CDMA chip, cloud computing, and more!
With the iPhone 4 now available on Verizon Wireless and a sea of high-powered Android handsets rising up almost every day, the Web has been abuzz over what Apple’s upcoming plans are for the king of smartphones: the iPhone. The company usually unveils its new phone each June, and this year appears to be no different, but a host of new rumors suggest that Apple may mix things up this year in a renewed attempt to stave off the Android horde surrounding it. Could there be multiple iPhones? iPhones without buttons? Read on to find out exactly what we know so far.
Three iPhones to rule them all
This first rumor comes from a
Taiwanese Mac site, which reports that Apple is testing “three radically different” iPhone 5 prototypes. One of them is an improved version of the standard iPhone (an iPhone 5) while the other two are new hardware variants. Reportedly, one of these new iPhones will have a physical slide-out keyboard. The third may be an iPhone Nano of sorts — a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone.
This rumored iPhone 5 variant would target business (BlackBerry) users. Rumors point to a standard-sized iPhone with a slide-out keyboard. However, the rumor ends there. We don’t know whether it will horizontally slide out like a Droid, or vertically slide down like a Palm Pre (or
BlackBerry Torch). We’re skeptical about this rumor, as it seems like a big jump for Apple to make, especially considering how much
Steve Jobs hates buttons. Nevertheless, if the company is set on competing with Android, a slide-out keyboard would be a good way to reach a new sect of customers.