Either/Or
It's not always easy trying to second guess the honchos at Apple, but entertaining trying. So I'm going to go for A6. Why? At the moment, with Android leading the charge on sheer specs alone, with all their wings and go-faster stripes, it is tempting to imagine for a moment that the phone department is where Apple might this year have to ramp up the attack against it's army of clones, copycats and downright rivals merely in order to maintain a competitive edge based on more than name and reputation alone. The iPad still pretty much has its particular market almost to itself so as far as the 'average' consumer is concerned it's inards might as well be made of jelly. But I think that Android (and to a lesser extent Windows) are being pretty noisy lately in the phone world, where everything now is getting bigger, faster, louder, clearer etc. I have a hunch that this year will be Apple's turn to do a big number on the iPhone in order to make it big news again, even if making it out of 18 ct gold or unicorn skin is the only way left to go. However, it would be something newsworthy if the next iPhone were to go proper quad core, with better graphics still, and the ability to take multi-tasking to the next level entirely (whatever that might be).
That said, Apple could easily stick to the A5X and a slight change of numerical specifications here and there, and doubtless would still sell millions anyway, so who knows. As long as we don't get an iPhone the size of a housebrick next time around, a radical redesign of some kind is very much in order, and a processor that shows the potential to remain proficient two or three years down the line no matter what competitors come up with, that'll do for me.
