Another year, another iPhone? Make that another two iPhones / AP
- Apple may launch two iPhones
- Google preps Ice Cream Sandwich rival
Tech sites are reporting that Google is working hard to release the first smartphone to run on its new "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system.
Technology blog BGR reports that "the world's most anticipated Android phone" will be manufactured by Samsung and may be launched as the "Google Nexus Prime".
Ice Cream Sandwich is Google's next-generation Android 4.0 OS, launched less than a year after its Gingerbread OS hit the smartphone market. It also combines elements of its Honeycomb system, released last year specifically for tablet devices.
Like Nokia's recently announced N9 - also likely to launch in September - the Nexus Prime will be devoid of physical menu keys in favor of a clean, button-free design so users can take advantage of its "monster 720p-resolution (Super AMOLED HD) display".
"Our source indicated that Google could be working with multiple carriers and multiple OEMs on their own 'exclusive' Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) halo devices, and that they may all launch around the same time," added BGR.
BGR noted that Google's Nexus S successor (the Nexus Prime) will most likely be released in the US autumn.
On the other side of the pond, analysts and some bloggers believe that Apple is working on not one, but two next generation iPhones.
In an article on CNN's Fortune website, editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt wrote that Apple may be working on both a completely redesigned iPhone (dubbed, not entirely surprisingly, the iPhone 5) plus a "speeded-up iPhone 4" (possibly called the iPhone 4S).
The iPhone 4S may be launched as a lower cost, pre-paid iPhone, destined to entice the millions of potential customers who prefer to have their phone linked to a pre-paid plan, Mr Elmer-DeWitt wrote.
Fortune reports that Deutsche Bank anaylst Chris Whitmore told clients: "With Nokia and RIMM struggling...the time is right for Apple to aggressively penetrate the mid range smart-phone market (i.e. $300-500 category) to dramatically expand its (total addressable market) and market share."
TechCrunch's MG Siegler writes that "a few of the reports about the cheaper iPhone (including ours) noted that a cheaper iPhone may come with a completely new, smaller (or thinner) body.
"Think: less 'iPhone nano' and more 'iPhone lite'," rather than an iPhone 4 with slightly cheaper parts."
Regardless of the name or the form factor, the majority of iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S/lite rumors point to an unveiling that would take place sometime in the US autumn.