Apple files dispute claim with WIPO over the iPhone5.com domain

We love rumors concerning the next iPhone and cherry-pick them carefully – and purely for the sake of discussion. These stories also prompt some of our readers to argue in comments that we here at iDB, as well as other media outlets, stubbornly insist on calling it the iPhone 5 even though it’s the sixth model in the series.

The debate has become a tradition of sorts. Of course, we encourage and very much appreciate your views on the subject. Adding fuel to the already heated discussion, it has come to our attention that Apple filed a dispute claim with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the iPhone5.com domain.

Now, Apple frequently files such claims and in some instances even buys domain names, especially some forwarding to shady sites. But don’t read too much into this latest domain dispute. Per conventional wisdom, the next iPhone is likely be referred to as the new iPhone…

Fusible first spotted Apple’s dispute claim (and MacRumors relayed it), which was published on WIPO’s website earlier this week.

The article explains:

Although Apple has been known to open its wallet to acquire domain names, in the past year it has selected to go the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) route.
And it’s had a lot of success.
The company secured rights to iphone4s.com, iphoneporn4s.com, iphonesex4s.com, iphonexxxforce.com, iphone4s.com and other domains that were being used by an adult website operator, after filing a similar dispute with WIPO.

In years past, Apple won disputes over domains such as applesales.com, appleproductsonline.com, appleipods.com, ipods.com, iPhone4.com and WhiteiPhone.com.

Interesting enough, it was only after the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S had hit the market that Apple paid an undisclosed sum to gain control over the iPhone4.com and WhiteiPhone.com domains because they redirected visitors to pornography sites.

As for the iPhone5.com domain, it’s no surprise Apple is seeking to gain ownership. For years, Apple’s been spending a portion of its marketing dollars toward actively promoting its gadgets on the web.

The company is also known for fighting cunning web ‘entrepreneurs’ that steal its customers and tarnish the Apple brand by serving a bunch of outgoing links, ads and explicit content hosted on domains which contain Apple product names.

In contrast, navigating to any of the Apple-owned domains simply redirects users to the appropriate sections on the Apple homepage. However, this latest dispute claim in no way asserts the next iPhone will be called the iPhone 5.

Rather, it serves to indicate Apple has recognized visibility of the media-coined iPhone 5 moniker, even more so now that it’s gearing up to launch the handset later this year.

As for the device, I think we can safely assume they’re gonna call it simply the new iPhone, much like the iPad 3 became the new iPad.

After all, the iMac is called the iMac, not the iMac 4, 5, 6 and so forth.

In fact, the iPhone is the only Apple product to use the numerical naming scheme so Apple would be wise to abandon the practice.

Your take? Are they gonna call it the iPhone 5, the new iPhone or something else?

Meet us in comments.

Samsung’s hand shown, will Apple come through with the next iPhone?

We may still be a good five months away from Apple’s expected iPhone 5/Next iPhone announcement, but Samsung has already shown its hand with the Galaxy S III.

Building on the already hugely popular Galaxy S II handset, the third generation of the Galaxy S line will feature some interesting software additions alongside a reasonable speed bump and rather large screen. All in, it’s an impressive-looking update for a company that has already shown that it is more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Apple when it comes to kicking out huge sales numbers and satisfied customers.

But shy of taking the Roman numeral approach to naming conventions and calling the next iPhone the iPhone V, what will Apple do to take the fight to Samsung now that the Koreans have firmly placed their stake in the ground? What must Apple do in order to compete with a handset that has seen almost as much excitement and expectation as any Apple product? The truth is that it might not actually need to…

A quick look at the Galaxy S III’s specifications show that Samsung means business. A quad-core 1.4GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 720p Super AMOLED screen are not to be sniffed at, and at 4.8-inches big that screen promises to be rather imposing, especially beside an iPhone 4S. Android fans will love it, and that’s obviously what Samsung was aiming for.

Throw in some software additions such as a Siri-like digital assistant called S-Voice, and things appear to be coming together for Samsung. But is it competition for the next iPhone?

I would wager that no, it is not. At least, not entirely.

The GS3′s – that’s what I’ll call it for now – specifications are truly impressive, and as far as the Android spec-race goes, this is sure to be right up there with the best of them for a while yet. The thing is, that’s never really been Apple’s style, and as an extension of that, it’s not really the style of Apple’s customers, either.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that the next iPhone does not feature a quad-core CPU, or that Apple decides to stick with the tried and tested 3.5-inch screen rather than twist and opt for something much more gargantuan. What happens then?

Will iPhone owners, or more importantly, prospective iPhone owners decide to jump ship and instead stump up the cash for a GS3? Some might, no doubt, but some may come the other way, too.

See, many iPhone owners simply won’t notice those specs, and the less tech-savvy won’t be interested in that Super AMOLED display. They’ll note that it’s bigger, yes, but is it too big? I know it would be for me, though I do have the hands of a large three-year-old.

What I am trying to get at, after almost five-hundred words of gibberish, is that whilst the GS3 is undoubtedly an interesting piece of kit, it’s probably not going to steal iPhone buyers from Apple, and that is surely what Samsung needs to do. If not, then Samsung will be left to scrap it out with the likes of HTC and Motorola to try and get as many existing Android owners to choose one cookie-cutter handset over another.

In that battle, nobody wins.

Apple’s modified Nano SIM gets a showing off ahead of the final vote

An Apple-proposed variant of the upcoming Nano SIM card standard is being shown off at the International CTIA Wireless show. Apple modified the design around Nokia’s concerns and ahead of the final vote tally, which is mere days away. Voting for members of The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) began last month and wraps up in mid-May.

According to SIM card maker Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), the revised variant is being “driven by a supplier”, in this case Apple. So, how has Apple changed the original design to counter Nokia’s concerns? With a slight ‘how come I didn’t think of it’ tweak, that’s how…

Firstly, don’t count on the Apple-backed Nano SIM debuting on the next iPhone. Micro SIM took five years since ratification to appear in the iPhone 4. But don’t panic, Nano SIM could appear in devices in 2013, G&D hinted:

Adoption is being driven by a supplier. We’ll see a product very soon after ratification.

As for Nokia’s concern that Apple’s design – which originally called for a third-smaller SIM card with a tray – would require devices to be re-engineered with this in mind, Chriz Ziegler, writing for The Verge, explains:

A small amount of plastic has been added around the edges of the electrical contacts, making the new nano-SIM just long enough so that it can’t be forced lengthwise into an incompatible socket.

Though the modification saves little room inside devices, it nevertheless provides some additional space for other components compared to the Micro SIM it’s replacing.

More importantly, Nokia could no longer argue that Apple’s Nano SIM would makes it easy for customers to accidentally jam it into a Micro SIM slot. Let’s also not forget that Apple was granted a patent pertaining to so-called SIM connector, which lends itself nicely to Nano SIM.

A SIM card tray component leaked from a part supplier, shown below, also suggests the next iPhone will still feature a Micro SIM slot.

As you’ll recall, Nokia – with a little friendly help from RIM – is basically saying Apple’s variant is no good, accusing the iPhone maker of imposing the standard upon itself, Research In Motion and Motorola.

Apple on its part promised to license its Nano SIM to others on a royalty-free basis, to which Nokia threatened it won’t license essential patents pertaining to the standard should Apple prevail.

If Nokia’s proposal gets chosen, there’s nothing stopping the Finnish cell phone giant from extracting license fees from competitors.

Sprint’s 4G LTE will be slower than AT&T’s or Verizon’s

As Sprint, the nation’s third-largest carrier, begins its long-overdue nationwide 4G LTE rollout, those keeping their fingers crossed for some crazy fast download speeds on a next-generation 4G LTE iPhone will be in for an unpleasant surprise.
While the carrier will keep unlimited data, whether or not the next iPhone has LTE (and we know the Now Network will be eligible for a 4G LTE iPhone), the handset will theoretically achieve much greater downloads speeds on rival AT&T’s and Verizon’s networks.
Here’s why…
Earlier this morning, Sprint shared some updates during a breakfast at the CTIA Wireless trade show. We heard earlier they’ll flip the switch on 4G LTE in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and San Antonio in mid-year 2012, with other markets to follow later this year.
But Sprint’s 4G LTE won’t be as fast as rival Verizon’s or AT&T’s because the rollout will initially be in 5-MHz channels versus Verizon’s 10-MHz channels.
Writing for PCMag, Sascha Segan lays it out nicely:

Peak speeds won’t hit the levels we’ve seen on Verizon and AT&T of 30-40Mbps. But the network will be more consistent and more convenient, with reliable average speeds and faster handoffs between 3G and 4G than Verizon is seeing.

In fact, Sprint is managing 4G LTE rollout in a way which won’t require a redesign of existing iPhones, the author notes.

Shifting voice calls to the new 1x-Advanced technology lets Sprint carry more calls in less spectrum, opening up airwaves for more 3G data on devices like Apple’s iPhone. Faster, Ethernet-based backhaul dramatically increases the number of megabits each cell site can carry.
Moving voice calls to abandoned Nextel 800-MHz spectrum opens up even more 1900-MHz data bandwidth for hungry iPhone users, without the iPhone having to include another radio band.

Also, this nice-to-have:

Sprint is also working on background apps that will automatically connect its phones to Wi-Fi networks, further improving the apparent data performance of 3G phones.

If it wasn’t for the iPhone, Sprint would have actually lost 400,000 customers in the first quarter of this year. They activated 1.5 million iPhones, 44 percent of which were to new customers, or approximately 660,000 new iPhone subscribers.
Despite its success with the iPhone, board of directors punished Sprint CEO Dan Hesse for betting the farm on Apple’s handset, forcing him to agree to a pay cut by a whopping $3.25 million in this year alone.
Last year, Sprint prepaid an astounding $15.5 billion to Apple for the iPhone, the move some watchers opined put the company at a risk of bankruptcy.
Sprint, like other carriers, is having issues with high iPhone subsidy.
Apple’s device carries some of the heftiest subsidies in the industry, about $200 higher than other manufacturers.
While this report will admittedly disappoint some of you, the fact remains that Sprint is the only major carrier in the United States to offer unlimited data to its 4G LTE customers.
That’s gotta be worth something, right?

iPhone 5 not yet finalized but still set for October release

With the iPhone 5, next iPhone or whatever moniker Apple decides to give the next generation smartphone set to be released later this year, much of the discussion of late has centered around what that release will see brought to the table.

To date, for example, all iPhones have featured a 3.5-inch display while the Android-powered competition has seen huge variation in display sizes and technology over the last 48 months. Could the iPhone 5 see a new form factor, complete with new screen size? While possible, the suggestion now is that the intricacies of the iPhone 5 have yet to be finalized at Apple with less than six months to go until the handset is expected to begin shipping.

The latest claims come from iMore, whose sources appear to be confident that October is still the month we will be lining up outside our local Apple Stores, even if Apple itself doesn’t quite know what the thing we are buying will look like…

According to iMore, the one thing that we can take for granted is indeed that October release date, with a new, smaller dock connector also likely to feature according to the web site. The much-rumored screen size change and new aspect ratio, though, have apparently yet to be finalized by Apple’s engineers although that does not mean the iPhone 5 will not see both changes find their way into the final design.

If there is one thing that we can take away from these latest claims, it is that nobody really knows what is going on at Apple just yet. Yes, some may claim to have sources and yes, some may be more accurate than others. At this point though, and with the expected shipping date drawing ever closer, nobody really knows what is going on inside 1 Infinite Loop.

Which means we’ve got another five months of rumors to go.

Rumor: purported iPhone 5 headphone jack/earpiece surfaces

Despite recent reports that Apple hasn’t finalized the design for its next-generation handset yet, purported ‘iPhone 5‘ part leaks seem to be picking up. We’ve seen home buttons, a SIM tray, and now another one has surfaced.
MacRumors points to a new headphone jack/earpiece/Wi-Fi cable component that recently popped up on SW-BOX.com. Although the piece shows out of stock, the parts vendor claims that it indeed belongs to the iPhone 5…

“If the new part is indeed legitimate, it does represent a significant departure from the component organization in the current iPhone. In the iPhone 4 and 4S, the headphone jack, volume buttons, and mute switch are grouped together on a single component, while the new part associates the headphone jack with the earpiece speaker and Wi-Fi cabling.”

This is actually great news for folks pulling for Apple to release a redesigned handset this fall. In fact, it’s the first purported component we’ve seen thus far that doesn’t look nearly identical to its iPhone 4/4S counterpart.
For those skeptical on the significance of part leaks, keep in mind that similar reports exposed the third-generation iPad’s A5X processor more than a month before Apple unveiled it.

Analysts warn: swirling iPhone 5 rumors will hurt Apple’s second-quarter sales

Remember when Apple announced sales of 17.07 million iPhones during the September quarter of last year? The company was dealing with a rare loss at the time for it had failed to meet analysts’ audacious expectations.
In fact, Tim Cook had gone on the record in a conference call with investor to blame the slowdown on those crazy summertime rumors that had been repeatedly calling for a completely redesigned iPhone for the summer of 2011.
“iPhone sales slowed toward the end of the quarter amid speculation over the debut of a new model”, the CEO said. Well, looks like history could repeat itself.
Some analysts are now concerned that Apple is due for a big come down because swirling iPhone 5 rumors could negatively impact sales of the current-generation iPhone 4S/4 as would-be buyers withhold their planned purchases in anticipation of a new model.
Credit Suisse lowered their expectations yesterday, although they believe Apple will see robust bottom-line growth of 40%/20% in CY12/CY13.
However, in a note issued to clients today, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty warns that Apple’s guidance for the June quarter was weaker than expected. Although Apple’s summer guidance is usually weak due to seasonal refreshes of the iPhone and the Mac lineups, this time around a gap between Apple’s guidance and what analysts had been clamoring for was substantial.
Apple guided for a nine percent lower revenue compared to estimates. Worse, Apple’s earning-per-share projection fell twelve percent below estimates. Typically, Apple guides revenue two percent below estimates and EPS up to ten percent below analyst estimates.
Blame it on those crazy iPhone 5 rumors, says Business Insider:

Apple has only guided this far below expectations once since June 2009, says Huberty, and that was the September quarter of last year when it correctly predicted consumers would buy fewer iPhones as they waited for the next release.

The Cupertino company is scheduled to release calendar 2012 second-quarter results on July 24. As pointed out by Asymco’s Horace Dediu, each new iPhone launch is typically preceded by a quarter where units went down sequentially.
The abundance of rumors pertaining to a sixth-generation iPhone – temporarily referred to by the media as the iPhone 5 – could be a result of Apple not yet finalizing the design and specs of the next iPhone.

Another iPhone 5 concept, courtesy of ADR Design.
If rumor mongers are to be believed, the handset is due for an October release now.
However, the Apple rumor-mill is pretty much unreliable these days.
The ongoing iTV speculation?
Apple buying Loewe to build beautiful television sets?
DigiTimes?
iDB reports on Apple rumors purely for the sake of discussion.
As you know, Apple typically refreshes the iPhone once a year and last time updated the handset on October of last year. Keeping the design intact, Apple opted for incremental hardware tweaks such as a faster A5 chip, an eight-megapixel camera and Siri voice assistant, to name a few.
Some folks are putting their faith in supply chain sources who claimed the iPhone 5 could launch this summer, allegedly at Apple’s annual developers pilgrimage that runs this year in San Francisco between June 11-15.
The common argument is that Apple now needs to refresh the iPhone as soon as possible because its chief rival Samsung just launched the third-generation Galaxy S smartphone.
What’s your call: will the rumor-mill again hurt iPhone sales?
The above Liquidmetal iPhone 5 concept courtesy of  French designer Antoine Brieux.