confucious wrote:What makes you think that?

OS 4.0 will be the new OS, and hence the upgrade. There is a lot of speculation going around obviously but in order to compete with emerging phones like Google's Nexus One hardware-wise if nothing else, it will be a significant upgrade. It will be more so than the step from 3G > 3GS and although nice, the speed hike and improved camera/video capability was arguably not a significant upgrade.
It's fact that Google is competing with a phone with these technical specifications:
http://www.google.com/phone/static/en_U ... specs.html

This is why I am excited because Apple is in the business of not only competing in the smartphone market but leading. I don't *think* that, I *know* that.

I'm glad you *know* that - I don't, bet, heh, what do I know.

confucious wrote:I'm glad you *know* that - I don't, bet, heh, what do I know.

Which part?

I provided the hard ware spec for the Nexus One. The next iPhone has to 'compete' with this hardware. You don't agree?

I could ask a question to Steve Jobs, "are you in the business of leading with the best Smart Phone on the market?" it's highly doubtful the answer is going to be, "well we have a nice little phone that some people still like but not as good as that Google phone, did you see the specs on that thing?".

Vince wrote:

confucious wrote:I'm glad you *know* that - I don't, bet, heh, what do I know.

Which part?

I provided the hard ware spec for the Nexus One. The next iPhone has to 'compete' with this hardware. You don't agree?

I could ask a question to Steve Jobs, "are you in the business of leading with the best Smart Phone on the market?" it's highly doubtful the answer is going to be, "well we have a nice little phone that some people still like but not as good as that Google phone, did you see the specs on that thing?".

Gotta say I agree with confucious on this one. Nobody but Apple (and perhaps some if it's partners) has any idea what Apple's gonna do with in it's next update.

Apple has never been in the business of blindly copying or one upping competitors specs. For example the original iPhone had a weak camera, no memory slot, no 3G and no video calling. These were standard on top end phones when it came out and yet most of these features are still missing from the 3GS but I think we'll all agree it's still a top class phone. They just worried more about innovating elsewhere (screen, usability, linking the apps together...etc). I don't know what Steve Jobs would answer to your hypothetical question but I imagine it depends on what definition of "the best smartphone" you use as specs don't tell the full story.

A quick google search (http://www.labnol.org/tech/google-phone ... ers/12695/) reveals the Nexus sold 80,000 phones in the first month (compared to 600,000 the iPhone in it's first month and 3,000,000 of the 3G in it's first month) so at the moment I don't think Apple is too worried about falling behind the competition.

As I mentioned earlier, I personally don't reckon we'll see any major hardware features coming next as I think any big innovations they would have shown in the iPad launch sine it's basically just a big iPhone. So I reckon it will be faster, have more memory (I replaced my 80Gb iPod with a 32Gb iPhone and miss the extra storage), a better camera and probably better battery life. But I, like everyone else, am only guessing.

We'll only know when it's announced...

More memory would be sensible and follow the trend set by previous devices - I don't think anyone will be surprised by that.
Apple have placed an order for 45 Million 5Mp cameras so I think we can guess what they are destined for.
O2 put pricing up for video calling on the iPhone but removed it saying it was an error - which lends weight to rumours of a front facing camera on the next iPhone.
Anything else is just speculation based on what people would like to see rather than anything else.

confucious wrote:O2 put pricing up for video calling on the iPhone but removed it saying it was an error - which lends weight to rumours of a front facing camera on the next iPhone.

I'm not convinced about this - I think it could have been a genuine mistake.

I think video calling is a gimmick and was introduced far too early to mobile phones and Apple didn't miss out by leaving it off the iPhone (so far at least). It's costly, usually the quality isn't great, the screen isn't really big enough (even on an iPhone) and, to be honest, it's not useful in most conversations (you don't need to video call when arranging where to meet mates for example).

Where video calling IS useful is when Skyping friends/family who live far away - on a computer. This solves the cost, bandwith and screen size issues. Excellent for seeing new just born relatives for example, if you don't live near people for example.

Which makes me wonder why or why didn't Apple have a front facing camera on the first generation iPad? I see more use for it there and, since they didn't put it on there, I'm not convinced we'll see it on the iPhone in the next model. It will come to the iPhone at some point as it has all the facilities to do video conferencing (except you know - the camera), and be better at it than any smartphone to date, but don't see any urgent need to do it soon.

Barry

P.S. I personally would rather they spent their time/hardware improving the back camera first

I agree that video calling is a "gimmick" and have no use for it, a lot of people have requested it though.

Fake? http://tinyurl.com/yfg9eqz

Reckon so. They have 4 different "iPhone 4G"s but concentrate on showing the accessories but don't bother to show a close up of the 4G itself? And since when did Apple give so many accessories with their main product? They've gone the reverse instead and only give the basics!

I think the 3GS is a wonderful phone.