If Apple’s regular release schedule is to be trusted, we should expect a new iPhone this summer. Will it be called the iPhone 5S with small improvements over the iPhone 5? Or will the pressure from rival Android phones force Apple to go big and make a complete overhaul?
So far, the rumor mills point to an incremental upgrade – no revolutionary changes. So let’s read the tealeaves and try to predict what will be changed. And remember, this is all conjecture with no official information forthcoming from porcelain tiles.
I like to start with the fun stuff, like the camera. Certainly, the next iPhone could get a megapixel upgrade. There are some Android phones that brag 13 Megapixels, and while it’s possible Apple could increase the resolution of their camera, I think a more interesting upgrade would be the inclusion of a new, smart flash that incorporates Phillips multi-color LED. To match ambient light, the camera could elect to use a white flash (in fluorescent or colder lighting) or a yellow flash to match warmer room tones (candlelight, camp-fires, or accent lighting).
There have been tons of rumors about Apple increasing the screen size from 4 inches to 4.8 inches to compete with some of the Android “Phablets” like the Note. But this rumor seems a little thin with CEO Tim Cook stating publically on Apple’s Q1 2013 Earnings Call that he thinks Apple made the right decision to stick with a smaller screen.
Unlike current wireless charging where you have to put a device onto a pad that’s plugged into a power source, Apple has applied for a patent to use something called Near Field Magnetic Resonance (NFMR). With this technology, a home base (a computer or larger device) serves as a hub that can charge the phone anywhere within a meter’s proximity. This could also be a boon for selling more Mac laptops if they become the primary vehicle for wireless NFMR charging.
For the first time ever, I am including an IOS update in the “Fun Rumors” category. While the iPhone operating system (currently IOS 6) is not usually an opportunity for big innovation, this portion of the company has recently been taken over by Jonathon Ive, Apple’s superstar design guru. He is no doubt feeling pressure to bring his genius to bear on software (good luck with that) and may surprise us with a few cool new tricks. I expect a Siri upgrade at the very least, and a determination to show that Apple’s maps have recovered from the debacle of the IOS 6 roll out.
Where Android phones pose the greatest clear and present danger to the iPhone is on price. Many models are free with a 2-year contract. So the $199 price tag of the iPhone with a 2-year contract is just too steep for many. The biggest price pressure is coming from emerging markets like China and Brazil, where Apple has to lower the price of their only phone in the initial land grab for new smartphone users.
If Apple introduces a free-on-2-year-contract phone, this lower cost version will almost certainly still be able to access faster LTE data networks. It will possibly have a slower Snapdragon System on a Chip (SOC) processor from Qualcomm. It might include a bigger battery, which could increase the phone’s thickness from the current 7.6 mm to a rumored 8.2 mm. It could have a lower resolution camera. And the most interesting possibility: its case could be from a cheaper plastic or Floor tiles, which could allow for a multitude of colors.
The inclusion of a cheaper iPhone could be a huge boon to consumers. If you’ve been holding out until Apple’s flagship device became more affordable, don’t let the slightly diminished technical specs deter you. The beauty of the iPhone is that it’s intuitive and fun to use – but that’s a function of the operating system, not the hardware. If it were me, I’d wait to buy until the consumer testers run the cheaper iPhone through it’s paces and make sure there’s nothing glaringly wrong, and then I’d get it. That is, if Apple actually releases two versions as part of its traditional June release cycle.
Credit unions and other debit card issuers moved significantly closer to being able to issue smart chip embedded debit cards last week when a key industry council announced its members reached agreement on a key software approach.
The Secure Remote Payment Council announced that the 10 debit network members of its Chip and PIN Workgroup have agreed to adopt a common software approach and work with Discover Financial Services to license it for use by all debit card issuers.
The new approach will help solve the problem of how to have debit cards that both have smart chips embedded in them and which allow merchants to easily route debit transactions on any one of the 18 possible different competing debit processing networks.
Under regulations flowing from the Durbin amendment to the most recent financial reform laws, credit unions and other debit issuers are supposed to provide the ability for their debit cards to process debit transactions on at least two unaffiliated networks, but the current smart chip standard used in the rest of the world only allows for one.
The inability to provide that faculty on debit cards had held up the issuing of smart chip-enabled debit cards and CO-OP Financial Services, one of the key organizations working to resolve the problem, this week advised credit unions to still hold off issuing smart chip enabled debit cards a while longer.
“Adoption of this common U.S. debit AID [application identification] and application is extremely important to credit unions because it preserves their routing and network choices in connection with the emerging EMV standard,” said Stan Hollen, CEO of CO-OP Financial Services in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
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