[Ben]

Engadget suggests that, since the iPhone 4's foray into CDMA, Apple will take all of its mobile products over to Qualcomm chips and have them offering both CDMA and GSM support in one package. Infineon currently supplies Apple's GSM radio chips.

They also believe that iPhone 5 will be a complete redesign, and that all Apple's mobile are moving to a multi-core processor called the A5 - including AppleTV.

The other item of note is that they believe iPad 2 will contain both a higher resolution screen and an SD card slot.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/14/exclusive-the-future-of-the-ipad-2-iphone-5-and-apple-tv-and/

I think most of us on Talk3G expect iPhone 5 to be a near identical form factor as iPhone 4, like 3GS was to 3G, and I'd still be surprised if this is not the case. If iPhone 5 is to change dramatically both inside and out then Apple really have their work cut out - the iPhone 4 is one of the most expensive-feeling handsets I've ever owned, including a £2,500 Vertu Ascent! Nothing else mentioned is too surprising.

[Hands0n]

It makes total sense to make a combination GSM/UMTS/CDMA handset rather than run multiple production lines. The cost benefit is enormous, to the manufacturer and Apple.

That said, I am inclined to agree that the format of the iPhone 5 is unlikely to be very different to the '4'. The design is sufficiently modern to not be aged already. I think perhaps a more powerful processor and more RAM would not go amiss. But these are small incremental steps so typical of Apple :)

[DBMandrake]

I still think this "total redesign" will be an upping of specs, ala 3G to 3GS, not a change in industrial design or form factor.

Possibly dual core CPU and graphics - rumours say two SGX 543 replacing the SGX 535 of the 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad - seems quite realistic. As does a switch from Infineon to Qualcomm for the radio chipset.

Infineon has never made the best 3G chipsets around, and the infineon chipset has often been fingered as a major cause of the relatively "poor" (by Nokia standards) signal performance of all iPhone's, as well as a possible cause of some dropped calls.

Whether Qualcomm chips are better in this regard is yet to be seen, but Qualcomm are the only manufacturer making hybrid CDMA/GSM/UMTS chipsets - so it makes a lot of sense for Apple to switch to Qualcomms hybrid chipset now that they're trying to support the CDMA market.

It would allow them to reduce their inventory from two radically different incompatible models, a CDMA model, and a GSM/UMTS model, to a single model that supports both network standards. This also automatically makes it a "World phone" for CDMA users like Verizon customers - who can then roam on GSM networks when outside the US, a big shortcoming of the current CDMA only iPhone 4.

If this happens it seems to me that the current CDMA iPhone 4, which is not even out yet, is a bit of a stop gap model which they must have originally planned to release late last year, but which has been held back for some reason.

Physically, I think we'll see the same form factor, with the slight antenna design change we see on the Verizon phone.

[Ben]

I hope you're right. I think a total *internal* redesign does seem much more likely.

I also really hope we get the various bits of chippery that have been discussed. The numbers sound immense!