According to a January 20 report in Brightwire, Apple will announce multiple versions of the iPhone this June. Besides the next iteration of the iPhone 5, there will be a new 4.8 inch inch iPhone model, call “iPhone Math”. A third iPhone version with a 12 mega-pixel camera will be released for the 2013 holiday season.
This Brightwire report is based on a news article in the China Times of Taiwan, which cites sources in Apple suppliers. There are many Apple suppliers in Taiwan and the Brighwire report goes into detail about which suppliers will be manufacturing what parts, which gives this report some credibility.
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But the idea that Apple would call the new 4.8 inch iPhone, “iPhone Math” seems crazy and is probably at mistranslation of the original China Times article. It also seems crazy that Apple would launch three versions of the iPhone (probable another mistranslation). The China Times is printed in Chinese and there is no English version of this newspaper.
It seems more likely that there will be two models of the iPhone. One model will be the next version of the iPhone 5, which the China Times report says will be called the iPhone 5S. The other model will be the new 4.8 inch iPhone with a 8 or 12 mega-pixel camera, which will be announced in June and hit the market for the 2013 holiday season. This makes complete sense.
The January 20 Brightwire report says that this new 4-8 inch iPhone model will help Apple compete in the “phablet” market. A “phablet” is a phone with a display that is larger than the screen on an ordinary phone, but smaller than the screen on a tablet. We have reported earlier that the trend in phones is to larger screens, which are favored by women and those in business.
This Brightwire report seems to confirm a report last year in the Japanese blog Macokakara that said Apple would be launching a 4.8 inch iPhone in 2013. Macokakara has a good track record in predicting Apple plans.
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