Author
Cody Sharp
iPhones have been released for the last 4 years in a row starting with the first being released in 2007 on June 29th. The 3G followed on July 11th, 2008. The 3GS continued the annual release schedule by arriving on June 19th, 2009 and the most recent iPhone, the iPhone 4, arrived in the US on June 24th, 2010. History tends to repeat itself, especially at Apple. What are the chances that the iPhone is released in June or July of 2011? Absolutely, positively 100%.
That means if your contract ends in the next 2 months, don’t do something stupid like buying an iPhone 4 and signing your soul over to a network for the next 2 years. Stick with whatever you have and remain vigilant despite how slow you quickly aging 3G works. What is the soon to be released iPhone 5 sure to offer? For one, a faster processor. Game sale revenues are how Apple is going to make its money going forward. They own the marketplace and receive a 30% cut of any app sold. How much is that for Final Fantasy 3 which was recently released at an eye-gouging $15.99? That’s right; Apple nearly receives an astonishing $5. Sure, dollar games like Angry Birds and Doodle Jump got us here but Apple wants those big time games that only Nintendo has right now. In fact, I’d wager they are gunning for the entire mobile gaming market. The iPhone 5 is going to help them get closer to doing just that.
So besides speed, iPhone 5 will need more memory. I’m not saying that Apple won’t be stingy. They always are. They will probably only give us 50% more memory than the iPhone 4 or so instead of doubling it like they should. Nevertheless, it means the iOS is going to be able to look prettier in the future. Maybe we will see some type of Android style widgets that will run in real time on the background of the device. That kind of thing is possible if Apple adds more memory. Of course, larger and more complex games are possible as well. Seriously, the iPhone 5 is going to be all about gaming. There is just too much money out there in that market.
Finally, I’m betting that we finally see the hard drive size increased quite a bit. Instead of a 16GB and 32 GB models, I think we will see the numbers go up quite a bit. A single top tier game can be several GB’s in size (although not currently on the App Store). Besides, space is cheap and consumers aren’t exactly all tech savvy. Bigger numbers must mean it’s better, right? This is an easy thing for Apple to claim without increasing the cost of the device. That’s all for now, although I’ll be making several more predictions before we get closer to an iPhone 5 launch. Here’s a hint – a bigger screen means a better gaming experience.