Today I’m launching a six-part op-ed series in which I make my predictions for Apple’s product line-up for 2012. Today we’ll look at the company’s smartphone.
We’ll see the iPhone 5 arrive no later than June. I predict that will sport a redesigned form factor with a four-inch, 960×540-pixel qHD screen and an ARM 6 processor with a quad-core.
The good news: it will be screamingly fast and the screen will look great. The bad news: all those iPhone cases you have — and some accessories — will no longer fit.
The iPhone 5 will also, per my crystal ball, sport 1GB of RAM and offer HSPA+ support. The latter will allow for theoretical download speeds of up to 21Mbps. However, storage capacity will remain the same, with the next gen iPhone being offered in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. On the bright side: despite some nifty new features and a redesign, the current pricing structure will remain intact. I don’t foresee any major changes in the smartphone’s cameras.
Older models of iPhones (including the iPhone 3) will remain available at reduced prices. So don’t look for the long-rumored, never-to-see the light of day iPhone mini.
Tomorrow: the iPad.
— Dennis Sellers
