iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 5: Apple Release-Date Reality Check

a5cpu

The latest leaked pictures (thanks to MacPost) show what clearly looks like a white iPhone 4 but with a redesigned circuit board to accommodate for the larger A5 CPU that currently lives inside the iPad 2. The authenticity of this image can’t be confirmed, and neither can the circuit board, but the attached iPhone screen clearly shows the old-style grill that once existed before the white iPhone’s proximity sensor was redesigned to a solid black bar. I’m not sure what that means, but it could mean the person who got his or her hands on the main circuit board only had spare parts to see if it booted up. Or it could all be fake.

Does that mean we shouldn’t expect a sexy new iPhone 5 with a completely redesigned look? Sadly, this seems to be the prevailing sentiment, even among slightly bogus iPhone 4S photographs, because the Apple rumor mill believes that something — anything — should’ve leaked out by now about the iPhone 5’s hardware, internals and physical components.

Maybe, maybe not. Here’s how I look at it: Apple continues to see success with the iPhone 3GS at $49 and Apple may want to create a new product that fits in that slot. The 4S is likely a real product, and a picture from an alleged AT&T computer shows a iPhone 4S is in the inventory system. But the Gizmodo iPhone 4 scandal in the summer of 2010, which leaked out so much information about the upcoming iPhone that Apple was basically upstaged, may have forced Apple to implement some incredibly sneaky and strict methods to ensure absolutely nothing about the iPhone 5 could leak out. Doing that may also mean it had to shift its production cycle.

My prediction for October 2011 is an initial launch of the iPhone 4S, at a lower price, followed by the announcement of the big, bad iPhone 5 coming around January 2012, much like what Apple did with the Verizon iPhone. Keep your wallet closed and your fingers crossed. October is less than a month away.