The New iPhone 5 Rumor Roundup

Over the past few weeks there's been an increase in the volume of chatter related to the next iPhone, be it called the iPhone 5 or the new iPhone.

Let's take a trip through the blizzard of rumors to see if we can tease any useful information out from these rumors and speculation.

What We Know

It's easy to sum up what we know about the next iPhone. I can summarize it for you in one word – nothing. Apple, along with the entire supply chain, operates under a tight cone of silence and leaks are rare. And even when genuine leaks do happen (like the leaked photo of the iPad's A5X processor), it's impossible to sort them out from the rumors and nonsense until after the new device is released.

The only people who know for sure what the new iPhone is like work at Apple and for the companies making/assembling components for Apple, and these people aren't talking.

The Rumors

Now that I've admitted that we know nothing official about the next iPhone (and don't trust anyone who says otherwise), here are some rumors and educated guesses related to Apple's next smartphone.

Oh boy, have there been a lot of rumors lately. Let's take a look at some of them.

Bigger Screen

A rumor that has appeared now via multiple sources -- specifically the Wall Street Journal and Reuters -- is that the next iPhone will have a bigger screen than the 3.5-inch screen that the iPhone has had since it was launched back on 2007. Sources speaking to the WSJ say that the screen will be "at least four inches diagonally," while the sources speaking to Reuters say that the screen will be 4-inches exactly.

A 4-inch display would give the new iPhone roughly 30 percent extra viewing area.

Today, Bloomberg sources are also confirming that the next iPhone will have a bigger screen.

It remains to be seen what effect a larger screen will have on the iPhone. Will it mean a larger iPhone or will Apple be able to package the screen into a form factor similar to that of the current handset?

Redesigned look

Bloomberg, along with affirming that the screen is getting a bump up from 3.5-inches, also claims that the new iPhone will sport a redesigned look, and that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died of cancer back in October 2011, worked closely on the redesign.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White believes that the new iPhone will feature a sleek new look that will require a unibody shell. Given that the current styling has lasted two iterations, perhaps a redesign is now on the cards.

A redesigned look is likely to be on the cards given that the appearance of the iPhone hasn't changed since the iPhone 4 was released back in 2010.

iPhone to be made of "Liquidmetal"

This is one of the more odd rumors, and suggests that the metal components of the next iPhone will be manufactured from a super-strong amorphous metal alloy called "Liquidmetal".

Even if the metal parts of the next iPhone were made of a supers-strong alloy, that doesn't really help you if you drop the handset on the screen.

Haptic technology

This is another odd rumor. It says that Apple is planning to incorporate haptic touch-feedback technology into the screen of the next iPhone. This would allow users to feel on-screen user interface elements such as buttons.

As cool as this sounds, I really don't think that we're going to see this technology in the next iPhone.

Name change

We'd all expected that the new iPad would be called 'iPad 3.' Apple surprised us by simply calling it 'iPad.' Given this change, it's now widely accepted that the next iPhone will be called simply "iPhone" as opposed to "iPhone 5" or something similar. Apple doesn't have a "MacBook Air 4" or "MacBook Pro 12," so it makes sense to abandon the number scheme for the iPad and iPhone.

LTE/4G support

Now that the new iPad now sports LTE/4G high-speed data support, it's likely that the iPhone will do the same, especially as carriers expand LTE coverage.

September/October launch

Last year Apple shifted the launch of the iPhone from June/July to October, thereby putting the launch sales into the Holiday quarter. This, combined with pent-up demand for a new handset, resulted in record iPhone sales.