22 mai 2009

“The Next iPhone”

daringfireball.net

The original EDGE iPhone and iPhone 3G use the same 400 MHz processor. Let’s say the rumors are right — and I believe they are — that the next-generation iPhone’s CPU will be running at 600 MHz. In the same way that, say, a 90 MHz Pentium was more than 1.5 times as fast as a 60 MHz 486, the 600 MHz CPU in the next iPhone will be more than 1.5 times as fast as the current 400 MHz iPhone CPU.

That’s what I already assumed as soon as the first rumors came out about the new CPU speed. The iPhone has been out for two years; it’s past time to switch to a new generation of CPUs.

Plus, there ought to be changes in the GPU as well, I suppose.

Industrial design changes will be subtle, perhaps very subtle. I expect that cases designed for the iPhone 3G will continue to fit the new iPhone, and that the only colors will remain black and white.

Hmm. Most people won’t upgrade just because it’s faster or for a 32GB version — or even because it does video. Those are nice plusses for new customers, but I don’t think it’s going to make me switch. Give me a hardware keyboard! Don’t you want to kill Palm?

Gruber is usually pretty reliable, which is why I tend to take these rumors/speculations more seriously than a TechCrunch article; the only thing I have trouble believing is that Apple would fit an autofocus lens in the iPhone’s form factor. I know that there are concepts of fluid lenses or whatever, but I’d be surprised if there was anything reliable and affordable enough to be embedded into Apple’s flagship product this summer. (And it doesn’t matter so much, because focusing isn’t the foremost problem with the iPhone’s camera.)