After the next generation iPhone was a no-show at Apple’s WWDC conference last week, the previous reports of an iPhone release in September gained more credibility. Now, according to some Apple intelligence from 9to5Mac, the next iPhone has reached final testing stages (or “AP” stage) with high-level Apple and carrier executives.
All signs point towards Apple being on track for a September release of the next iPhone, but some problems with Verizon could restrict FaceTime over 3G on the carrier’s CDMA network.
The next gen iPhone has been rumored to be a ‘global device’ capable of running on both GSM and CDMA networks, but it looks like there will be some inconsistencies with the iPhone’s feature set from carrier to carrier.
9to5Mac,
“Apple and Verizon have yet to strike a deal regarding FaceTime over 3G for the Verizon network. Keep in mind that 3G and 4G aren’t the same thing. < Don’t read into that too much. Or maybe do.
Apple and Verizon are still working out kinks regarding support for iOS 5′s over-the-air updates, which we broke the news about, so carrier support may or may not be delayed past fall 2011.”
FaceTime over 3G and OTA updates seem to have Verizon and Apple at odds with one another, so there’s a chance that the next iPhone could have limited carrier support in the U.S.
9to5Mac did some digging in the iOS 5 SDK and found some interesting code that references the next iPhone,
“While snooping around the iOS 5.0 SDK we located references to “N94″ and “N93.” These are internal code names for two unreleased iPhone models. As we have already told you, the N94 is an iPhone 4 with an A5 dual-core processor and it is likely the device that a small group of elite iOS app developers got their hands on in late April. The N93 is likely a carrier variation of the N94.
We aren’t too sure what this variation could be, as the only time a model number varied based on a carrier in iPhone history was with the iPhone 4: GSM is N90 and CDMA is N92. Verizon already leaked that the next iPhone features a GSM+CDMA chip, so perhaps the N93 or N94 is the Sprintmodel we told you about – or T-Mobile.”
If these “N94″ and N93” code strings are to be believed, it looks like we could be seeing two iPhones released this fall, instead of just one. Keep in mind that iDB exclusively reported that Apple was considering two iPhone models at once for the next generation release.
These two stings could be referencing the same iPhone with a different carrier variation, or they could be referencing the rumored iPhone Nano that we all keep hearing about. Either way, it looks like there will be more to September’s announcement than just one new iPhone. Then again, we could be wrong.
What do you think?
[image via RazorianFly]