Photo courtesy of Anostyle.com
I’m not picky. All I wanted in an iPhone before I finally made the switch from Android to iPhone was a bigger screen and 4G capability. The iPhone 5 had both; I jumped all over it and haven’t looked back since. But those were my requirements for jumping the Android ship; others might have had different reasons for switching or upgrading from a previous iPhone model. Some might just want the newest iPhone simply because it’s the newest. I don’t think anything besides a massive overhaul will make me upgrade from my iPhone 5 to the rumored iPhone 5S, but here are a few items that I wouldn’t mind seeing in the next version of the ever-popular Apple hardware:
- NFC Technology – Is it necessary? Absolutely not. Is it cool? Yes. The ability to pay for your groceries by swiping your phone at the register would be very helpful if you’ve got your hands full or if you’re in a hurry. I do have some security concerns though, so if there were an NFC option, it would be nice to be able to turn it on and off like WiFi or Bluetooth.
- Better battery life – This will always be in my list of wants for the next iPhone as battery technology keeps getting better and better and apps keep sucking more and more juice. The battery life on my iPhone 5 is pretty decent, especially when compared to my late HTC Thunderbolt. However, it would be great if I could use my phone a good amount and not have to worry about charging my phone in the middle of the day.
- Wireless charging – Speaking of the battery…let’s get wireless charging all up in our iPhones! Like the ill-fated Palm WebOS handsets did with the Touchstone accessory and like Nokia Lumia 920 owners can do now, it would be great to be able to put my iPhone down on my night table to charge and not have to plug it in.
Recently, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White came out with some juicy tidbits about the rumored next iPhone. (I’ll wait while you go check it out)
Personally, I don’t think that Apple will introduce a larger screen size than that which was unveiled with the iPhone 5. Previous thinking was that Apple did not want to go larger than 3.5 inches, so the 4 inch screen was a bit of a surprise in itself. However, I could certainly see Apple offering a smaller screen size, like 3 or 3.5 inches in order to put out a budget iPhone and take advantage of a lower price and possibly more customers for their hardware and their app store.
The possibility of many color options is a bit more feasible in my mind, since the iPod touch is available in multiple colors. Personally however, I’m not sure I would want anything other than a black iPhone. Most iPhone users conceal most of their phone with a case, so what does the color of the phone really matter? That being said, I’m not the decision maker at Apple. Though, don’t look for me to be waving around my neon green iPhone.
What do you guys think? Will Apple introduce a new iPhone with many color options and two screen size options? Is it even necessary?
More importantly, let us know what are you looking to see in the next iPhone in the comments.
Quotes via Macrumors
I really like the current iPhone size. Having the screen aspect ration be 16×9, matching standard widescreen format, is a huge improvement in watching most TV shows on the iPhone. I now rarely go to my iPad for TV and movie watching–only for the big widescreen movies.
For games, it seems like a good size, but a bunch of games haven’t been updated to take advantage of it yet, so it’s too soon to say. I’ll be testing out “Horn” and “Infinity Blade II” soon, though.
great
article perry! while I totally agree with you that making a colored
iphone is unnecessary – it will definitely appeal to the younger market
(teens/college students). when the white phone came out a ton of people
picked white over black just because it was new and different – even
though in the case – you cannot tell the difference. it will be
interesting to see what apple decides to do.
Thanks Andrea. Yeah, I definitely see why Apple could go with many colors, I just could care less about the color of my iPhone. Unless it was Yankee pinstriped or something like that.
Yeah, the screen now is the perfect size in my opinion. Its not just games that take advantage of the screen size, its also apps like mail, which can fit another email on the list compared to the 4s screen.
It would take a lot to design a larger screen that matches the current retina display, but I have no doubt they’ll do it at some point.
A big selling point that I never noticed until I played with my friend’s iPhone 4s is that the iPhone 5 is so much smaller and lighter! It’s unbelievable the difference I felt.
I doubt that we’d see wireless charging. Apple loves keeping the iPhone as thin as possible, and wireless charging circuitry will take up space that will either make the phone thicker or the battery smaller. I’ve been wrong about these things before, though…
(Though do you think Apple would ever sell a wireless charging, mophie-like sled case instead?)
I really don’t think they would put such new and exciting technology in an accessory, I would think they would try as hard as possible to put it inside the phone itself.