Just when we thought we had seen the end of meaningless iPhone 5 rumors, an analyst has decided that it’s time to start talking about an LTE iPhone 6 for 2012. The iPhone 5, or iPhone 4S, or both, haven’t even shipped yet. Heck, they haven’t even been announced.
Here’s the deal: Wedbush Securities’s Scott Sutherland has gone on the record claiming that an “LTE iPhone in 2012 with a ‘materially improved user interface,’ will be released in, well, 2012.
On the new interface
The most interesting thing about Sutherland’s comments is the aside about the new interface for iOS. Obviously mentioned in passing, Sutherland could mean absolutely nothing by it, but the comments have got me thinking a little bit about the iOS interface.
It’s far from stale, and I’d argue that it’s still a long way from being out-dated. That’s how well iOS works. That being said, given the number of competitors that have taken to outright copying the ins and outs of iOS, I wonder if Apple’s feeling like they need to start making changes to how it looks and feels.
One of the reasons I switched from Windows XP to Mac OS X Panther was because Panther looked different. Better, if you will. It had nothing to do with the functionality of Windows XP. At the time I didn’t know any better, but looking at Panther piqued my curiosity just enough that I decided it was time to make the switch. It was foreign, and that made it inviting to me. iOS could be hitting that point where Apple feels they need to spice things up a little in an attempt to further differentiate themselves from Android and all the clones. It doesn’t mean that iOS is bad. It just means that Apple thinks they can make iOS even better. Apple doesn’t rest on their laurels, and it won’t surprise me if we start seeing iterative changes to iOS, but on a slightly larger scale than we’re use to with the yearly iOS updates.
On the LTE rumor
We obviously assume that there will be a new iPhone every calendar year, so that’s not really news. The LTE comments may be based on insider knowledge, but at this point rumors have been circulating the mill for a while now. We’ve heard that AT&T is setting up LTE hardware in Apple Stores for testing purposes, and we’ve also heard that Apple (Cook and Co.) has been meeting with China Mobile executives regarding TD-LTE inclusion in handsets.
There’s obviously something LTE cooking, but here’s the problem: we’ve already heard on numerous occasions that LTE will not be in this upcoming iPhone, and that it will be in the iPhone 6 (In October, April, May, and probably a lot more too).
This right here is why people are so fed up with Apple rumors. There’s nothing new to add, and it’s just a bunch of people stating, re-stating, and re-re-stating the same cryptic information over and over again. This is also the same reason that Google spends so much time tweaking their search algorithms, and now that we think about it, we’re kind of grateful.
Source: Barron’s
Via: AppleBitch
