Don't even those have the FCC writings though? Even when they don't have final numbers they put some XXXXs.
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I thought that only non-functional concept models made directly in Cupertino at an early development stage didn't have any regulatory writings at all.
Part of the reason they put those writings even before actual production starts is to have an idea of how they look in real life. It's hard to tell just from a render how it will actually look like since it depends on the actual color and material of the text. For example on the 3G it was gray on black, the 3GS and later had metallic text while the iPad has laser engraved text. You may want to know how the text will look like before ordering production of millions of units.
Of course Apple could have stopped writing them on pre-production units like they have always done in the past, but this looks suspicious.
Regulatory writings aren't necessary required on the device itself, it can be baked into the software. The removal of such printing/writing may be all due to small, minor aesthetics. I would much rather those regulatory writings to be removed from the back of my iPhone for small aesthetic improvements. Look at the Samsung Galaxy S III- There aren't any regulatory writings on the back or anywhere on the phone. Perhaps those writings were printed internally in the phone. But most importantly, regulatory writings have to be baked into the software, available for all to view and see.
Perhaps its just little things Apple wanted its new iPhone to be. Apple is noted for making extremely small minor improvements that is isn't necessary but is still welcome.
The iPhone 3G/3GS had the storage capacity of the phone printed on its back. But looked what happened with the 4? Apple decided to remove this small imprint of the device capacity.
Perhaps Apple just think that its time those almost redundant writings to go - its pointless. It even made me think why aren't iPhones made in the US instead of China when I saw the 'Assembled in China' printing on the back of my phone. You see, small details do matter alot.
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Thanks OP for this thread.
I had some time away from the forum
Can someone please add the links for all these leaks?
I am thinking these might be controlled leaks, and actual pre-production components therefore there is no need to have all the markings on the rear side. Or simply they didn't went through that manufacturing operation.
Having the audio connector in the bottom makes sense, every time I lay my iPhone in my car's cup holders while having both cables connected is not good for the cables and the iPhone is not very well nested.
Design wise, also makes sense having a smaller connector for gaining space inside and improving the reliability of the connector. I have an iPhone 4 and the 30 pin connector is no longer working for certain accessories, even it is connecting to iTunes and charging fine.
The home button is also failing in my iPhone 4. So these leaked changes make sense if they indeed improve the reliability of these two very important components.
The accessories vendors need to know in advance about the smaller connector, and surely Apple will sell an adapter for using old accessories.
Maybe these leaked photos will be for a low cost new iPhone.
One of Apple's strategies is to get a lot of new customers, therefore they could do something like releasing two distinctive models: a low cost one (like the leaked pictures), and high end pro premium (whatever you want to call it) one.
Financially speaking they already made a lot of money with the iPhone 4 and 4S production lines, so they can easily kick off new ones, or justify modifying them.
They can afford to outpace their competitors by releasing a "new low cost" iPhone with 4" 16:9 Retina Display, and also releasing another one with the same display but with additional hardware features and a different design (not like the leaked pictures).
Not releasing a "new design" last year allowed them enough time to polish the designs and come back this year with not one but two insanely great iPhones, and also gave them enough time to prepare the manufacturing side of it.
And with the rumors of the smaller iPad, to catch up with the low price smaller tablet markets, Apple can try to do something similar to target the cellphone low cost market, they know how to make launches a success.
Besides the hardware and software features, they could be cooking breakthrough deals with the carriers to make the new low cost iPhone very affordable, if some very affordable data packages become available.
No. Apple is not known to fragment its own line of products. Yes, fragment.
If apple wanted to appeal to the lower end of consumers with smaller pockets, then those consumers would have to make do with previous generation devices that is still an Apple device and not exactly very mediocre.
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Also...since Apple has indicated their plan to tighten security, wouldn't it make sense that these sites that had displayed the supposed iPhone 5 parts would have been shut down quickly, and future leaks would have been stopped? The fact that they haven't batted an eye suggests they don't care, which supports them being fake.
If Apple had 'battled' their eye isn't it more obvious that the leak is real and genuine? To act oblivious and ignorant of rumours and chatters in the tech world is what makes Apple so mysterious and an exciting thing to talk about.
And by the way, in tech world, consisting of thousands of tech blogs and sites, its hard for one site to not to capture the news and info from the other. Once a particularly news have been posted, many other news site would have posted it almost immediately as well.
Even if apple managed to pull the information within minutes, there is something called Google Cache, which caches the information of websites.
