iLounge is claiming inside knowledge of the shape of things to come for Apple in 2012: a teardrop-shaped iPhone and a slightly thicker iPad.
Jeremy Horwitz, editor-in-chief of iLounge, offers these forecasts from “our most reliable source” in his Backstage blog.
The new look for iPhone has been rumored before and didn’t happen in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. So only time will tell if this forecast is on the mark for summer 2012, when the new phone is expected.
“We’ve been told that the device will have a 4-inch display and will be 8mm longer than before, with a metal casing (probably aluminium),” Horwitz said.
That display would be an increase from the current 3.5 inches.
Josh Lowensohn said in CNET: “The move was widely expected with any serious redesign in the run up to the unveiling of the iPhone 4S last month, given the popularity of the size among rival device makers.”
He noted that a metal body was also rumored before the introduction of iPhone 4S.
He said: “Apple has used metal in the casing of all its iPhones thus far, going from using it around the edge of the screen as a bezel, to an external antenna band that makes up the side of the iPhone 4 and 4S. But during the company’s unveiling of the 4S last month, Apple made a point to note that it was still using glass.”
Is thinner no longer everything at Apple?
As to the iPad 3, Horwitz said an extra 0.7mm is needed “in order to accommodate the twin light bar system needed for its higher-resolution display. It’s currently on track for a March timeframe release, and according to our source could be publicly shown as early as January, depending on conditions.”
Eric Slivka said in MacRumors notes iPad 2 “currently checks in 8.8 mm thick, which would make the iPad 3 approximately 8 percent thicker than the iPad 2 but still substantially thinner than the 13.4 mm original iPad.”
