The likelihood of Apple significantly expanding the size of the next iPhone to make way for a bigger display is pretty laughable, but LTE seems like a lock for the next iPhone. That’s why we’ve got a good feeling about a new report that says that while the next iPhone will be truly 4G in every sense of the term, the biggest change to the overall form factor of the device will be a new micro dock connector.
According to iMore‘s Rene Ritchie, his sources have confirmed to him that the iPhone 5,1, as it is being called, will have:
• Similar if not same sized screen (currently 3.5-inch but not set in stone)
• 4G LTE radio
• New “micro dock” connector
• Fall/October 2012 release
I’d say about all of these are set in stone, with the exception of the micro dock connector. iMore has predicted this tinier dock connector before, and it certainly makes sense: within the iPhone, every millimeter needs to count, and the dock connector takes up a huge amount of real estate within the handset. An Apple dock equivalent to micro USB would be a much more efficient use of space, but it would also cause backwards compatibility problems with a legion of accessories.
