iPhone Rumor Mill - Will It Ever End?

When it comes to rumors, the iPhone is King

When it comes to rumors being spread about a product, it is the Apple iPhone which consumes everyone's attention with what the coming iPhone might contain. The day after the iPhone 4S came out, there were already rumors about what the next one would contain and when it might be available for everyone. Some of the ongoing rumors for the coming iPhone are almost certain to become part of the next iPhone solely because that is what the rest of the industry is doing. As an example, quad core phones are expected to be the norm in a few months and the iPad has the A5X processor in it. Given that the next iPhone is expected to arrive in the fall, we can assume that it will contain a quad core processor.

And the rumors are all over the place with what may or may not be included in the coming iPhone. Some are very believable because we expect to see certain things. Others are the type of wouldn't it be nice to have. And some are the kind of never going to see, but I would love to have. Here are some examples of what is going around:

Screen Size

• iPhone coming with a 3.5 inch screen. (iPhone 4S size)


• iPhone coming with a 3.7 inch screen


• iPhone coming with a 4 inch screen


• iPhone with reduced bezel for larger screen

Chips

• Texas Instruments producing "power management chips"


• 4G LTE phone


• Quad Core Processor


• LTE on Quad Core Processor

Other Rumors

• Integrated SIM cards

There are so many more rumors than this, such as one which had the iPhone coming with a curved back. These things just seem to keep coming. There is even a rumor being circulated that Apple has applied for a patent on a glass phone. We know that it would not be made of actual glass, but rather plastic or some other material. The idea of a clear phone where you can see all the components is an interesting idea. There are reports of the iPhone coming in Q2 and not in Q3 as is widely expected. We went through that rumor mill last year with the iPhone 4S, which if Apple had followed their normal process would have been announced in June. That came and went and in the end, it was September. I am not sure people really care all that much about it launching in June. They are more interested in whether it will have a 4 inch screen or not.

But it seems that many of the rumors we have been hearing are either too far out on what we could consider to be the fringes of what it might contain, to those that we have been hearing for so long, we just assume they are going to be included. It is as if we are approaching overload because the rumors just don't ever seem to stop and that may be part of the problem. The biggest rumor over the past few weeks is the screen size because all the other are ones which have been heard before or we just do not care about that much, such as the docking component changing on the iPhone. After a while you get down to "so what".

Some are calling the rumors of the coming iPhone to be a snoozefest and that may be on the mark. Some of what we are expecting to see are the same items we were expecting to see on the iPhone which was released last fall. Since we have been hearing about those before the last iPhone, there is not too much expectation for anything which is all that new in the rumor mill. We have heard about 4G LTE, quad core processor, possibly larger screen size and a new shape for the iPhone with a reduced bezel. That does not leave too many new rumors to be talked about.

Do you think we have heard all there is to hear in the rumor mill for the coming iPhone?

New iPad : How Everyone Missed The Name

Now that Apple has made the formal announcement this morning for the latest version of the iPad, many are going to be talking about what it contains or does not contain based on all the rumors which have been circulating over the past several months. Some of the rumors, such as the "Retina Display" were spot on in their accuracy while some others were close but not right on the mark. As an example, the A5X processor versus the A6 processor. Those are going to be talked about for weeks, if not months, regarding this latest version of the iPad. Apple has already put up a page comparing the new iPad to the now previous version on their web site. Twitter is flowing with Tweets about the latest iPad. Articles are being written, such as the failure on the part of Apple to include Siri which resulted in so much success for the iPhone 4S. These comments and debates will be with us for a some time. So many will be playing the "Monday morning quarterback" analyzing what Apple did right and what they did wrong.

The one thing that everyone missed in the rumor mill was the name. No one guessed that it would be simply called the iPad. Respected publications are still calling it the iPad 3, such as PC World among a list of others. How could everyone miss the name change and in a lot of cases continue to call it the iPad 3 hours after the formal announcement by Apple? That is something that is confounding. There was the well recognized name of the iPad 3. The rumors about the name being changed to the iPad HD because of the retina display were circulated by many as what it would be called and some are still using term. Some of those who were claiming the name to be the iPad HD or believed it would be include:

• Venture Beat


• The Washington Post


• CNet News


• Mashable Tech

And this is just a few of the many sources which seems to have believed that the coming iPad would be called the iPad HD. There was a majority of people who believed that it would be labeled as the iPad 3, the natural successor to the iPad 2. How could everyone be wrong? I have not found any leaks of the name "iPad" and no one was reporting a name other than the iPad HD or the iPad 3. It makes you wonder how everyone could have missed the change in the name so completely.

Now the debate begins as to why the iPad does not have a specific label assigned to it so that it represents the current model. It has already started with posts from CNN as to why the iPad does not have a name. Or the the New York Times talking about how it is puzzling experts. It seems that it is a marketing mistake to not provide a unique name for a product.

"It's just 'iPad.' It's what it is."

As to how everyone could have missed the mark on the change, we can chalked that one up to Apple. Their ability to keep things secret and control the leaks which then turn into rumors is one that continues to confound journalists. Why Apple has chosen to create the simple name will also confound journalists for quite a while. What are they going to call the next iPad they release? As for now, the name is the iPad. This will undoubtedly create confusion for consumers and there is nothing to stop Apple from calling it the iPad HD or iPad 3 in the coming weeks. But for now, the name is just simply the iPad.