This kind of baffles me, its going to be a cheaper alternative apparently but how exactly can you make it cheaper? Bog standard LCD screen? Less RAM? at that rate you've got the 3GS

What I think they'll do is introduce an 8GB iPhone 4 that has fixed the antenna issue and call it the 4S, It'll be cheaper than the iPhone 5 but on par with the Galaxy S, Sensation etc iPhone 5 £499 16GB model, 4s £399,

Just my thoughts.

Probably a rebranded iPhone 4. The 4S may cut down the costs here and there in the features included, but it will be a way for Apple to provide a smartphone which can compete with all the Android phones coming out. Apple want market-share and they are losing it every day currently by only having one smartphone model.

Its $5 for the chipset, Reducing RAM saves maybe 50c.
Apples buying power means their phone build cost could be lower than that of the xperia x8 which currently sells at £60 PAYG.

And whilst plastic screens have been called 'cheap and nasty' by some they do have advantages.

The rumours right now are leaning towards the iPhone 4S being the only model introduced this year, with it being similar to the iPhone 3GS compared to the 3G. If that's the case then we shouldn't see any "budget choices" with the design.

If that turns out to be wrong and the iPhone 4S is a cheaper model alongside the iPhone 5, I'd expect to see the following:

- No more than 8GB of storage, potentially less given the introduction of iCloud
- The lower quality screen found in the iPod touch (cheaper)
- No improvement to the camera
- Lower cost of all components due to price drops in the last 15 months
- Possibility of the device only being sold in markets where Apple is seeing very stiff competition e.g. China and India. They might be able to drop some of the features in those markets.

iphone series are expensive, which are a fact everyone knows. however, you deserve it!they support so many functions. so don't hesitate, just take an iphon right now!

When a new model will be released in the next two weeks? Sounds a bit premature

Did you type that on an iPhone? Looks like a severe case of "Teeny Screen Syndrome" that afflicts Apple owners. It’s caused by using a device where the screen is so small it is only just visible to the naked eye. As well as badly written text the other symptoms of TSS are extreme envy of the Samsung Galaxy S range of phones resulting in the poor Apple user resorting to legal action to try ensure they don’t have to see all that acreage of AMOLED loveliness and a sense of over bearing misguided superiority that because they have paid so much money the teeny screen does not matter and they must have the best phone.

Get a life

The iphone5 wont be on par with the Sensation/GS2 (I am assuming you meant GS2, rather than GS). So I doubt the 4S will be.

Do you work for one of the phone companies? Just wondering how you can be so definite about an unannounced device.

The best the iPhone 5 could possible have is a 12MP camera (unlikely as it would make the phone thicker, so more likely to be 8MP), 1.4GHz dual-core processor (possible, Samsung and HTC are both readying devices at this clock speed so Apple would have to at least match it), 4" screen at 960 x 640 (Apple can't go to HD because unlike Android where apps can be coded to a rough template, all iOS apps are coded to this specific ratio (hence the early need for iPad apps to be separate)), 1GB RAM (almost a certainty, matches the S2 and beats the Sensation), and a new case design.

There is literally no way Apple could beat the specs of the Galaxy S2 beyond an over-clocked processor and a higher-res screen (although personally I prefer the clarity and vibrancy of SuperAMOLED Plus to the sharpness of the Retina Display). They will want to reclaim their "world's thinnest smartphone" title, which will force them to use current or last gen components just to fit it all in. Apple had the hardware advantage last gen due to signing long-term high-volume contracts years ago before the tech was ready. Samsung have made massive investments to make sure they don't get caught napping like this again, so Apple will have to just try to keep pace for the forseeable future.

But no one claimed it would beat the Galaxy S II - ACU said it couldn't be "on par" with it, and edEx questioned how ACU could be so certain about that.

I can't imagine they'd take the A5 above the 1GHz already in the iPad 2 TBH. Higher clock speeds will lower battery life, and there's less space for battery inside an iPhone than an iPad. As a user I know which of those options I'd rather have. More time between having to charge it up again.

Agree with you about the screen, although if it appears as large as 4" I'll be surprised. Somewhere between the current 3.5" and 4" is my guess.

I don't get the obsession about specs coming from some Android users though. Apple have never been about the hardware specs on their computers, so using the same benchmarks to discuss their phones seems a bit redundant.

Not at all. My GS2 has a higher clock speed than the iphone 4 yet i get longer out my S2 than i got from my old iphone 4 and its thinner. When the device is not in use the S2 has a clock speed of 200mhz. On just browsing the web or flicking through the main screens it has a clock speed of 800mhz. Very rarely have i ever seen my phone using 1.2ghz constantly.


No apple never have been about specs and it shows on their desktop computers and laptops. They are always at least a year behind the competition when it comes to hardware!

Specs do matter. For some reason its only apple users who think they don't. My phone is much faster than an iphone 4 simply as the specs are much much higher.

Of course your phone is much faster than an iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is nearly 18 months old.

And my point still stands. Apple the company don't bother worrying about hardware specs, they are instead all about the interface and making the device easy to work for the user. It's what they've always been about.

As for why people buy their products, I'm sure that's for all sorts of reasons. Same with any product on the market. I hope you aren't one of those that believes all iPhone users to be Blind Fanboys or whatever the term is. That one's getting rather old.

Your Galaxy S II came out a year after the iPhone 4...Of course it is going to be faster, and also be better in other ways.


Always at least a year behind?

The original Galaxy S came out in June 2010, the same month as the iPhone 4. They have the same CPU (ARM Cortex-A8), the same amount of RAM (512MB), and the same resolution camera (5MP). The Galaxy S did have the next GPU up though, with a PowerVR SGX540 compared to the iPhone 4's SGX535.

The iPad 2 came out in March 2011... Its specs are hardly "a year behind" the competition, given that all the high-end Android tablets use the same CPU (ARM Cortex-A9) and an inferior GPU (GeForce ULP rather than the iPad 2's PowerVR SGX543). The iPad 2 may have less RAM (512MB rather than 1GB), but that hardly makes it "a year behind", and it doesn't suffer for it.

I was going by Apples past phone releases (iphone 4/3GS). I am fairly confident with the device that will be launched in the next month or so, specwise, wont be better than the sensation/SGS2.

We will have to wait and see, if I am right or wrong.

OK. Just thought you might be getting some insider info that's all

Nah...nothing like that. Although if someone wants to hand me some insider info, I will be grateful.

It could be a half decent phone at £200.

I'm quite expecting a cut price iPad too.

I meant their desktop computers.

Considering it got announced that even in the US Android phone sales are now double IOS I'm certainly expecting a 'new ballgame' announcement from Apple.

Competitive sales keep developers keen.

I'm wondering if Apple will try to push for a much cheaper device; figure if anything they're likely to go for a middle ground on pricing.

As it stands, the iPhone is considerably more profitable than the Android devices - by a fairly large margin, despite the disparity in sales. Apparently even Symbian was more profitable for developers than Android (still unsure about that, although the figures seemed fairly believable at the time).

Even more so now that Microsoft are beginning to receive their "Patent Tax" from some manufacturers. If that becomes widespread it could negate the reason for manufacturers to go with Android at all and give WP7 a step back into the market, especially if Apple wins these lawsuits against Samsung.

I cant see manufacturers dropping android to be honest. I think what will happen is that they will produce phones for both OSs. Although since windows lags way behind (in terms of sales) I am not sure hoe profitable producing a windows device will be. There are quite a few people saying that Mango will be a big step forward for Windows, however I heard the same thing about WP7.

I can see Apple kind of winning. By this I mean they will win the odd case, however a simple software update will be all the is required (as with the gallery changes to the phones). I cant see Apple being able to banning the sales of Samsung tablets, just because it looks like the ipad. It would be a sad day if Apple did succeed in this. I think Apple know they wont win, they just want to slow down the sale of android tablets for as long as they can. They lost out in the phone market to android. They wont want to make the same mistake again in the tablet market.