Schoolboy error
There can surely be no Apple partners unaware of the company's wrathful treatment of leaks. So it always comes as a surprise when one of them slips out some tell-tale morsels of information prior to a major device launch.
This time it was iPhone sheath-maker Case-Mate, which has created a special iPhone 5 page, despite the launch still probably being weeks away. If you click on that link you'll see all the talk of Apple's next phone(s) carefully nuanced with references to rumours and ‘the guessing game continues'. But it doesn't look like that was the first version of the page.
Apple gadget blog TiPb published the copy from that page as they saw it yesterday, and the nuances were absent, as you can see below.
"The new iPhone 5 will feature a completely different form factor than its predecessor. Wider and thinner, the redesigned device features an extended home button. The screen size could see an increase to 4 inches.
"Also included in the iPhone 5 will be an A5 dual-core processor, similar to the one used in the iPad 2. It will also be equipped with an 8 mega-pixel camera, wireless charging and iOS 5, which features iCloud portable storage capabilities..."
Furthermore mobile blog BGR grabbed some images that Case-Mate put up of the cases, which have subsequently been taken down, no doubt under duress from Apple. They appear to show a significant departure from the popular iPhone 4. And another e-tailer - DealExtreme - has put up an image of another case, which we've screen-grabbed for posterity. Thanks to the tipster who flagged this one up.
It would be very surprising if the iPhone 5 didn't have an A5 SoC, in fact that may well be the provenance of the chip's name, but the speculation over who makes it, and future Apple SoCs, continues.
Digitimes credits its usual anonymous sources for the rumour that Apple will be using TSMC for the foreseeable future, which is already generally assumed. The A5s have probably stayed with Samsung, but the move to 28nm and subsequent nodes will be with TSMC, insist the moles.
One intriguing nugget within the report, however, is the assertion that Apple wasn't able to coerce TSMC into accepting punitive terms for its business. Yes, Apple may be the biggest company in the world, and a major customer, but TSMC is one of very few alternatives to Samsung in the 28nm fabbing game and, it seems, they weren't shy about reminding Apple of that fact.
