iPhone 5, AWOL at WWDC, could land in September
It's the morning after WWDC, and we're iPhone 5-less. Read our predictions for when we'll see the next iPhone and what iOS 5 means for its features.
Now that the excitement of yesterday's iOS 5 launch has died down, we're left with an empty hollow in our hearts, because no iPhone 5 was announced at this year's Apple WWDC.
Previous Apple blowers, from the original aluminium iPhone to the twins -- the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS -- landed in the halcyon days of summer, in either June or July.
But the lack of an iPhone 5 announcement at WWDC confirms that our deepest fears have been realised, and we won't see the iPhone 5 until the autumn at the earliest, when iOS 5 is scheduled to arrive on our phones.
Apple usually does an iPod event in September. Last year's event saw the launch of a new iPod nano, shuffle, touch and Apple TV. This year, September could be the month of the iPhone 5.
Apple may benefit from holding off on the iPhone 5, since people on the huge US Verizon network only got a version of the phone that would work on their CDMA wavelength in January. Rushing out an iPhone 5 would have destroyed those sales before they had peaked. Ditto for the newly minted white iPhone 4.
We may even have to wait until 2012 for the iPhone 5. Rumours abound that a modestly improved iPhone 4S could come out before a major upgrade.
Whether it's called the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 5, Apple is likely to want to push a new iPhone out before Christmas.
We expect the next iPhone to get a brain boost from an Apple A5 dual-core processor, like the one in the iPad 2. We could also see a slightly larger screen and the ability to make contactless payments thanks to the addition of NFC (near field communications).
LTE is already popular in the US, and should be coming to the UK soon. The next iPhone could add this frequency to make downloads and Web surfing even faster. It could also combine GSM and CDMA standards into one phone so that it works on more networks worldwide. iOS 5 didn't come with any mention of new gestures that could indicate a button-less iPhone 5, however.
Take a look at our complete guide to the iPhone 5 to catch up on all the latest news about the next-generation iPhone.