There may be plenty of other new smartphones around and forthcoming but the new iPhone, or iPhone 5, continues to be the most debated and discussed. Today we want to take a look at the design of the new iPhone 5 as we feel this will be of major importance to the Apple faithful who are clamoring for something that looks different this time around. So if there’s no new design for the iPhone 5 will this be a design tragedy?
Tragedy of course is a strong word and we know that the next iPhone will be a hit but how much of a hit could really be affected by how it looks. When the iPhone 4S turned up there was a certain amount of disappointment with consumers who had been waiting for the shiny new iPhone but wanted something that looked different. When it turned out to look exactly the same as the iPhone 4 there was a deal of huffing and puffing, after all if they have a brand new iPhone, many like other people to be able to see that!
However despite concerns that this would have a negative effect on sales, strangely it seemed to have no effect at all and the iPhone 4S has been phenomenally successful. Whether Apple can risk that same design strategy again for the iPhone 5 though is questionable. Although any new iPhone will always be popular and the specs, features and software are major purchasing factors, there will still be plenty of people who skipped the iPhone 4S in the hope that the iPhone 5 will look cosmetically different.
To optimize iPhone 5 sales we feel that Apple really needs to move away from the current iPhone form factor and bring something new to the table. Those who were patient before may not be so patient again and may even be tempted to jump ship for the Android Galaxy S3 just to get their hands on something different. Specs and features are not yet confirmed for the iPhone 5 but it’s widely expected that it will have an A5X or even A6 processor, maybe a larger display, LTE connectivity, improved camera and battery and also be running iOS 6. However good the internals are though, the iPhone 5 could come up against a brick wall in terms of sales if there’s no new look.
We have heard many rumors over the last few months of teardrop shaped or all-glass designs, an aluminum unibody or more curvature this time round but of course Apple is keeping the next iPhone top secret as usual. Personally a nice curve to the rear of the iPhone sounds like a good idea to us so that it sits nicely in the user’s hand and although a larger display sounds good we wouldn’t want the overall size of the new iPhone to get too much bigger. The Galaxy S3 is being rumored to have a ceramic backing and there are plenty of other great ideas for design out there that Apple could utilize and we’d say that as long as the company steers away from any plastic finishes that would be a plus point.
You might be able to think of other things that Apple could bring to the design of the iPhone 5? For example we know the iPhone already has multi-gestures when stroking or touching the front display panel but what about an idea similar to Apple’s Magic Mouse with multi-gestures. These could be added to the rear of the iPhone for example, bringing a whole new experience to iPhone gaming.
Also we recently brought you news of an iPhone 5 concept design, which we thought was extremely stylish and sleek. Take a look at the link above and you’ll see it had an LED-powered edge using different colors that could be used to display who was calling and a motion sensor activating the home button. Maybe this is the sort of design you’d like to see yourself for the next iPhone? Ultimately we do feel quite strongly that the look of the iPhone 5 needs to be quite radically different to satisfy many eager potential customers.
Apple managed to get away with the same design last year but we don’t think iPhone enthusiasts will be so willing to overlook that with the iPhone 5 release. We’d really like to hear from our readers about the new iPhone 5 design. Do you agree that Apple really needs to come up with fresh ideas this time? If so, what would you like the next iPhone to look like and do you have any ideas of your own for how the design could be improved? Let us have all your comments on this.