Let's Talk iPhone Keynote Predictions

So tomorrow is the day that we finally get to see the successor to the phenomenally successful iPhone 4, but what is going to be new?

iOS 5

The one thing that the new iPhone is guaranteed to will ship with iOS 5. If you have not already seen the WWDC Keynote (if not why not?) then you already know what’s coming in iOS 5. As a reminder you can look on Apple’s Website. The biggest change is how notifications work, they are less obtrusive and are all visible in one place. The other change that you will notice straight away (if you also have friends running iOS 5) is iMessage. iMessage is Apple’s awnser to RIM’s Blackberry messagener. It allows you to send free message to other user’s iOS devices, and you also get the option of recieving sent, received and read receipts.

iCloud

Although strictly speaking part of iOS 5, iCloud is a headline feature all of it’s own. It allows applications to store data “in the cloud” so it is accessible on all of your devices, be it iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Mac or one of those PC things. An important thing to note which differentiates iCloud from services like DropBox, is that applications can only see their own data (it is sandboxed by company). So for example, you can’t edit a photo in one application, and then upload it using another application by finding the edited image on the file system, in fact as a user you can’t even see your iCloud file system at all!!

A5 Chip

The iPhone 4 has an under clocked version of the iPad’s A4 processor, so it would make sense that new iPhone will have an under clocked version of the iPad 2’s A5 processor. The A5 processor (on the iPad 2 at least) has two cores, which will make your iPhone experience a little bit more snappy.

8 MP Camera

Not confirmed by anyone, but it would make sense (and would also be relatively cheap) to put a higher quality camera in the new iPhone. Bumping up the megapixel count for 5 MP to 8 MP is a logical step, and a few phones already contain this sensor.

64 GB of Storage

The iPhone has been stuck at 32 GB of storage since the arrival of the 3GS, so I expect an upgrade to 64 GB so I am able to carry half of music collection, instead of a quarter of it. (I could really do with a 128 GB iPhone if you couldn’t tell).

iPhone 5 or 4S

If I was Apple, I would call it the iPhone 5 how ever minor the update is, and that is for 2 reasons:

  1. I think people are more likely to upgrade to an iPhone 5, as subconsciously it just sounds like a bigger update
  2. If it is called the iPhone 4S, then what is the next iPhone going to called? The 6th iPhone surely can’t be called the iPhone 5. (I know there has been a 3GS, but that was because Apple called the 2nd iPhone, the iPhone 3G)

Other Updates

In addition to the iPhone, I expect the iPod Touch to get an update so it’s specifications are inline with the new iPhone’s. I don’t think it will get a 8 MP camera though, but we might even see a 128 GB Model. If we do see a 128 GB Model, I do expect the iPod Classic to retire to the gadget museum. If we don’t see a 128 GB, I don’t expect to see an iPod Classic update anyway … does anybody still buy them?

The iPod Nano will also get a refresh for the holiday season, now wouldn’t it be amazing if that run iOS 5…