iPhone 5 To Launch With 4G LTE This Year

Five days have gone past since Apple officially unveiled the ‘new’ iPad. One evident result of this is the increase in rumors regarding the next big thing by the company – the iPhone 5 (or what it is assumed to be called throughout this post).

The most recent release by the company came with two major upgrades. Unlike the iPad 2, the new iPad came with both a Retina Display (that the iPhone 4S already has), and 4G LTE connectivity. The latter is something that none of the other devices by the company have and is hence exclusive to the new iPad, as yet. Earlier, we reported rumors that the new iPad would come with 4G LTE connectivity. With these rumors now confirmed, the iPhone 5 too is expected to include an embedded 4G LTE radio. This will be a significant move by Apple, and users will get a big boost in data connection speeds.

This was reported by DigiTimes on Monday, who quoted this to be ‘very likely.’ The same site further stated that the next generation device was likely to be launched in the second half of this year. This is something that has been repeated often, and is expected due to the iPhone 4S being released in October 2011. Apple is likely to stick to the same schedule, and release the next device around the same time this year.

That leaves us with roughly half a year of theories and speculation about the iPhone 5, as the rumor mill is sure to keep churning out stories until the device is released.

Another rumor floating around is that the iPhone 5 will not have the new A5X chip. The chip, specifically designed for the new iPad and focusing on graphics, may not be perfect for inclusion in a smartphone. Apple might choose to focus more on battery life rather than graphics, with the next device.

The device, that may just end up being called the ‘new’ iPhone, is widely supposed to come with a better processor, a larger display and a thinner body and is currently anticipated to drive sales of LTE-capable handsets to between 45 and 50 million upon release, in contrast to earlier figures of 25 to 30 million handsets.