Just don't assume too much...think the 4S
The 4S seems obviously a plan-b, fallback option that Apple went with. Here are some clues:
-They were late, leaving their yearly cycle of June refresh until October. As fastidious and careful as Apple is with these things, the late arrival indicates--to me at least--that something didn't go as planned. Only the Verizon launch, earlier that year, might provide a reasonable explanation for the October launch of the 4S.
-The 4S isn't half the update other releases have brought. Think about it. Screen stays the same, form factor stays externally the same, no LTE support.
-Meanwhile, the improvements the 4S does bring seem linked to a worldwide iPhone model of the 4S, with modems suitable to the Chinese markets. There is a new antennae redesign, but again this is a tiny revision.
-What about the A5? This may have been intended for an iPhone 5, because the dual cores certainly provide little benefit for the current model. They drain the battery quicker, but to what end? And there is the whole nomenclature...why would you plan on the iPhone 4S to have an A5 processor? The A4 for the iPhone 4 made sense, this doesn't.
-Siri. I think Siri is the single most telling piece of this puzzle. Siri may eventually be useful, but it's going down in history as the most successful gimmick ever. It was already available in the app store, runs fine on old hardware (please see silly debates early on claiming Siri 'needed' those dual cores and did most processing locally...lol). Apple prevented Siri from running on older hardware simply to drive up new sales. Siri was a marketing gimmick, only beta on release (although I'll technically dispute calling anything released a beta--it's just buggy software released anyway).
-And didn't Apple NEED a Siri feature to sell the upgrade to the 4s??? While a redesigned Iphone 5 wouldn't have needed a gimmick, Apple needed something to get people go out and spend money on essentially the same phone they released over a year previously. In fact, this new 4S model in addition to having worse battery life, actually weighed MORE than the previous version. So you have a bulkier phone, with worse battery life, that looks exactly like your old phone...you'd better come up with a gimmick if you want people to buy it. Hence Siri.
-Finally, we had pretty reliable sources thinking a redesigned iPhone 5 phone would materialize right up to launch. Remember those cases for a tear drop form?
All of which convinces me that the 4S was a stop-gap release and not what was originally intended. Of course, these build-ups need production to begin months ahead of time, so Apple probably waited up until nearly June and decided they couldn't put out the iPhone 5 last year, and went to the fall back. Leaving us with another year of a pretty, but inherently flawed, design of easily breakable glass, uncomfortable ergonomics, and a tiny screen.
If I'm at all close to correct, we therefore need to be EXTRA careful drawing any conclusions from parts suppliers this go around. There have probably been iPhone 5 parts out there for a long time. Some real, and some probably already redesigned for the "new" iphone 5/6 whatever they call it.
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That mic is for noise canceling. It's in a very similar place on the current iPhone. Immediately next to the headphone jack with the speaker very near by
The noise canceling mic is near the jack, but no speaker. On the bottom of the phones, the speakers and mic have always been separated across the connector.
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How often are these parts leaks legit?
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple controls small leaks like this just to give waiting fans something to hold onto.
Apple wouldn't have fake components--at least the mundane ones like this--to fool someone. Maybe a fake form factor or screen or some such part, but I think it's more likely this is either legit intended for a different product, or an "old iPhone 5" (see my other posts) part.
