14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan-based smartphone makers are estimating a boom in sales, as well as increased competition from Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc., whose LTE iPhone 5 is expected to drop in the second half of this year, DigiTimes reports.
Dealing with Apple rumors on a regular basis, but rarely scoring an accurate report, DigiTimes is at it again citing smartphone makers from Taiwan as saying that…:
“As the new iPad supports LTE and a new version of iPhone to be launched in the second half of 2012 is very likely to support LTE as well, other vendors are expected to equip their new flagship smartphones with LTE functionality and this is likely to drive up global sales of LTE-enabled smartphones in 2012 from the originally projected 25-30 million units to 45-50 million units, according to Taiwan-based smartphone makers.”
Apple is indeed expected to launch a 4G phone this year - not because phone makers say so, but because it’s the next logical step for the Cupertino, California-based mammoth.
The company just recently released its first LTE (Long Term Evolution) device capable of 4G networking speeds thanks to a new LTE radio chip housed inside its chassis.
The same chip (or at least a similar one) should be making its way into the next-generation iPhone, as is tradition at Apple.
Although its iPhone hardware and software are vastly superior to most smartphones out there, LTE is quickly becoming ubiquitous in today’s smartphones and tablet computers.
In other words, Apple simply cannot afford to launch a new iPhone without LTE this year.
As for the exact release date of the next iPhone, it’s anybody’s guess. Some believe Apple wants to re-ignite the summer refresh cycle of its popular handset by launching the iPhone 5 during the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in the June-July timeframe.
Others are convinced the company has completely switched to a fall refresh cycle, which seems to have started with the iPhone 4S announcement this past October. It remains to be seen who was right and who was wrong.