Smartphone market is hot and presenting innovative technologies every week. Previously the main objective of handset manufacturers was to develop the hardware muscle, but recently developers have focused on greater level of performance optimization which is a positive trend.
Apple is always coming up with trend setting Smartphone. The credit of polishing up touch screen, fitting it in to a Smartphone and making it usable by any average person, goes to them with no argument. iPhone 4 was a blast and main attraction was retina display and Siri. 4S continue the trend with further improved multimedia capabilities.
Now it’s high time for Apple to introduce next iPhone probably iPhone 5. Compared to other handsets in market iPhone is having lesser powerful hardware configuration, but its performance is amazing. This is due to extreme performance optimization in iOS and now we have iOS 6. If they manage to increase the hardware configuration, next iPhone will be able to do magic. In addition they will focus on improving build quality as well.
Quick Catch-up
Here I’m trying to predict what will be there in next iPhone, hardware, software and other features to compete with other handsets in the market as well as surprise the hardcore Apple fans.
Expected Configuration
Design
iPhone 4S came with metal and glass body. Glass layer was there to give it a smooth surface. I don’t expect major design change in next iPhone, but construction material will be vastly different. They will probably stop using glass and use liquid metal to get the smoother finish. It will be lighter, stronger and durable. If they can add gorilla glass in to picture, it will be perfect.
Quick Catch-up
- iPhone 5 with Liquid Metal Body
Processor and Storage
Storage options would be 16, 32 and 64 GB as usual. But there is a possibility for them to introduce 128 GB version for heavy multimedia users. There won’t be expandable storage as the last thing Apple want is horrible user experience just because of a poor quality microSD card. RAM would be 1 GB and it’s a long awaited improvement for iPhone.
So far, even for the most advanced products such as The new iPad they were using dual core processors. They were achieving great performance by optimizing operating system and software platform. But it’s high time to move to a Quad core processor, possibly named as Apple A6 and it will be on iPhone 5. This will open a lot more creative space for application developers, especially in multimedia and gaming.
Operating System
Apple already has their iOS 6 with lots of new features. The main problem I see in iOS is less customizability which is limiting its users in a frame. In other hand more customizability leads to unpredictable performance issuers. I hope they will find the fine balance in next iPhone.
Display
iPhone 4S came with great display with good pixel density and color accuracy. But in next iPhone Apple will include 720p display most probably. But for this they have to increase the screen size and display won’t be usable with one hand. I have a very strong feeling that at least they will increase screen size up to 4 inch. If it will be a HD display pixel density will be approximately 367 ppi which is a super retina display.
Connectivity and Interfaces
When it comes to connectivity there is nothing much for them to do. However LTE radio is a must along with 2G, 3G and HSDPA. Other than that there will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 3.0, GPS and high chance for NFC as well.
Camera
iSight camera is already good enough to compete with other cameras in Smartphone. I don’t expect them to improve hardware configuration other than open the aperture to f/2.2. Camera application could use some polishing up such as in built panorama mode.
Battery Life
There are a very lesser chances that Apple will include a larger battery in next iPhone. It will increase the device weight as well as the charging time. Instead they will try to save battery life strategically and programmatically. They will optimize OS to consume lesser battery power and perform more work. Further, there might be an option to shutdown CPU cores when they are idle.
Possible Market Impact
Even when Apple launch iPhone 4S, they didn’t have significant market competition. But within last few months lots of advanced Smartphone came in to market. Most of them are Android powered and having Quad Core processor, advanced chipsets and 12 Core GPU.
By the time Apple introduce their next iPhone they will have to face serious market competition especially with Google’s Android and Samsung Handsets. iPhone sales have already dropped by nearly 25%. So they have to get everything perfect and give a huge surprise to users.
No doubt that the next iPhone will be a huge competition to other handset manufactures and mobile operation systems. They also will take this very serious and make plans to have their territory in the market by introducing exceptional Smartphone. As Smartphone users we will be able to enjoy technological cold war for sure in this year.
Tags: #Apple #iPhone