14 DAY TRIAL // Sources in a position to know say the iPhone 5 will be a legacy phone which customers will directly relate to Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder.
The heavily redesigned phone "was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design. For that reason...this product will establish the high water mark for iPhone volumes," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw.
The analyst wrote in a research note last week that he expects the iPhone 5 to be a "cult classic" because Steve Jobs dedicated his full time to the project.
Kumar’s knowledge of the device doesn’t stop here. He claims to know some technical specifications too. For example, the phone will have a slimmer figure and a larger screen.
The actual dimensions, however, won’t differ much from those of the iPhone 4, or the new iPhone 4S (both virtually identical in shape and size), he wrote.
Finally, the analyst mentioned LTE in his research note. The Long Term Evolution standard, often more simply referred to as 4G, is not a capability of the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S, but it will be in the iPhone 5, according to Kumar.
Another person with knowledge of Steve Jobs’ involvement with the iPhone 5 reportedly said the handset is a "complete redesign. This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited."
Cnet’s source suggests Jobs intended to leave an definite signature on the next iPhone so that fans would remember him the way he wanted to be remembered - an inventor, an innovator, a creator of things slightly ahead of their time.