Even though the iPhone 4 is over a year old now and the next iPhone is due to be released in most major markets within a couple of months, the current Apple phone is still one of the most popular smartphones on the market and remains one of the biggest sellers. It was only recently that the iPhone 4 was knocked from the top spot of bestsellers by the Samsung Galaxy S2 in places like the UK, despite a lot of technological innovation occurring in the smartphone industry since the iPhone 4 went on sale in the summer of 2010.
Dual core processors, for example, have become the must have thing for many prospective phone buyers and even 3D screens are starting to sneak into the industry with phones from LG and HTC. It is doubtful that the iPhone 5 will jump in on the 3D craze (or should that be fad?), but it will almost certainly come with a faster and more efficient dual core chip. So what other improvements can we expect with the next iPhone?
One of the biggest rumours floating around about the iPhone 5 is that it will come with a larger screen, bringing it more into line with 4 inch devices from major competitors like HTC and Samsung. It seems Apple are quite cautious of producing an oversized phone however, as many of those larger screened devices are perhaps a little too difficult to hold for people with small hands. The iPhone 5 will manage to incorporate a larger screen while retaining a similar overall size by decreasing the bezel surrounding the screen, so that in effect the screen will make up virtually the entire front of the device.
This has led some to state that Apple intends to do away with home button underneath the screen. Although a lack of buttons has been offered by phones like the MeeGo powered Nokia N9 this could cause quite a loss of functionality for the next iPhone and is unlikely to be implemented.
One feature that seems to be confirmed, and almost inevitable, is that the iPhone 5 will now have an 8 megapixel camera, quite likely with 1080p video recording. This is a step up from the iPhone 4′s 5 megapixel 720p camera which was by no means a bad quality snapper. Apple is certainly going to bump up the front facing camera as well for its FaceTime video chat.
The iPhone 5 will come with iOS5 which will add some great new additions to the interface. One of these is the Android inspired notification tray which will allow users to more easily deal with notifications than was the case with previous iPhones. The new OS also features an improved location based weather app.
The iPhone 5 is sure to be a big success when it is released in October, and it is so hotly anticipated that one Londoner has already started camping outside the Apple store on Regent Street. Although there will be a lot of new improvements to the new Apple phone the existing iPhone 4 still remains one of the best phones on the market. Although you can’t get hold of the iPhone 5 just yet you can still enjoy a new iPhone 4 contract, and these may become more affordable with the October release, but not any less enjoyable.
