As WWDC 2013 draws near – and with supply chain increasingly pointing to Apple’s procurement of components for production of a next-generation iPhone – small wonder various parts are now cropping up on the web. It’s the very nature of the game: Apple just can’t control each and every one of its suppliers in Taiwan and China, let alone their individual employees.
A Japanese parts retailer, which recently leaked a next-gen iPhone components, is back at it, having published Thursday an image believed to depict a motherboard component, presumably belonging to an upcoming iPhone refresh…
The top image pictures a part that could easily belong to an iPhone motherboard, which can be seen below. As for the differences, the end of the purported next-gen iPhone motherboard looks like it’s been tweaked compared to the iPhone 5 motherboard.
Whereas the iPhone 5 circuitboard features separate ribbons connecting the camera and flash modules, the leaked part appears to depict a combined camera/flash component that strongly suggests a tweaked camera module design.
The French blog Nowherelse.fr republished the component photo, obtained by Japanese retailer Moumantai. You may remember Moumantai from last month’s SIM tray component leak.
As seen above, these iPhone 5S trays are pictured in gray and gold colors, a departure from the iPhone’s current black/slate and white/silver scheme.
Assuming they’re legit,, these SIM trays conveniently match up with sporadic reports of colorized next-gen iPhones. For quite some time certain analysts and Apple’s supply chain folks have been adamant that the iPod-ization of the next iPhone will include a bunch of different color choices.
Be that as it may, rumor mills agree Apple is now gearing up to mass-produce the next iPhone(s).
Foxconn, the world’s top contract manufacturer, recently started hiring tens of thousands of workers “as we will start mass-producing the new iPhone soon,” Bloomberg reported.
And earlier this morning, we learned that Apple’s other contract manufacturer, Pegatron, is now ramping up hiring ahead of a next-generation iPhone production.
Who’s excited already?