Rumors and Musings on the new iPhone 2009

Nothing gets the fans of the iPhone and Apple products as excited as new products, or even rumors of new products. Apple fans have been waiting with baited breath with each passing week as Apple's WWDC 2009 draws closer. The show is traditionally where new products are introduced.

The show brought us the original iPhone and the new iPhone 3G along with a myriad of other cool Apple gear. Rumors have been building that claim Apple will be launching a new iPhone at the conference this year. Whether or not that will actually happen remains to be seen, there have been rumors swirling since shortly after the iPhone debuted that had Apple releasing a smaller iPhone nano, a clamshell iPhone and other phones, none of which have happened.

Whether or not a new iPhone is unveiled this year is any ones guess, but some of the rumors make more sense than others. One of the rumors that will certainly make it into the next generation iPhone will be support for HD video playback and output. With the variety of HD content on iTunes, this would be a no brainer for Apple. Apple is already clearing stock of its composite and component AV cables to make room for a new cable, presumably HDMI lending weight to this rumor.

Some rumors point to possible sources for components and manufacturers for iPhones. TSMC is rumored to be the foundry supplying GSM EDGE power amplifiers, Bluetooth ICs and CMOS sensors for the new camera supposedly coming on the new iPhone. The current camera is a 2MP unit; the new iPhone 2009 is rumored to have a 3.2MP camera. The resolution bump is all fine and good, but what the new iPhone really needs are better optics and an integrated flash to make the camera truly functional. The next iPhone will likely have the ability to support Bluetooth stereo headphones as well. That is one feature that users have been missing since the original iPhone launched.

Apple was rumored to have ordered over 100 million 8GB NAND flash chips this month, yet another arrow in the rumor quiver pointing to an imminent launch of a new iPhone. Apple reportedly plans to build 5-6 million new iPhones. I have to wonder though with the exclusive contract running out next year for AT&T, if there is no renewal could we simply be seeing Apple gearing up for a launch of the current phone on more carriers. Let's face it, to truly corner the smartphone market Apple needs its device on more than the AT&T network alone. I would expect to see a 32GB capacity be offered on future iPhones as well.

One of the big new features that complement that new camera sensor is supposed to be video recording capability. We could assume along with that video capability the iPhone will get the ability to send and receive multimedia text messages as well. The new iPhone is also said to support AT&T U-Verse TV service, which honestly is a feature that few will use.

Who knows if these rumors are true, we will have to wait until early June to find out. I expect that the iPhone 2009 when/if it launches won’t be revolutionary at all, but more of an upgrade. Apple is adding features here that its competitors have offered for a long time now. This is sort of like catch up for Apple. Perhaps I will be surprised, but I only expect marginal upgrades along the lines of the iPhone to iPhone 3G transition.
More New iPhone 2009 News and Rumors.

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