Gamers may drool about Angry Birds or World of Warcraft or Words with Friends, but I think the best game out there is "What will Apple do next?"
Just last week, there was rampant speculation about the next iPhone; new iPhone news reports – including mine – indicate there'll be an intermediate iPhone 5 upgrade, an iPhone 5S, perhaps appearing as soon as this June or July.
But now come clues that Apple may skip iPhone 5S and proceed directly to iPhone 6.
According to a post on The Next Web, iPhone app developers have discovered identification codes in application usage logs they track, indicating Apple is testing apps on an iPhone 6 running a potential next-generation iPhone/iPad operating system, iOS 7.
What does this mean? What's the difference between iPhone 5S and iPhone 6?
No one outside Apple knows, but indulge me while I guess.
More iPhones to choose from?
The new stuff in an iPhone 5S would likely be on the inside – NFC, camera improvements, et al (check my post last week for all the speculative details). The iPhone itself would look the same, except maybe for new iPod Touch-like colors.
An iPhone with a new number – iPhone 6 – on the other hand, usually entails a new or at least slightly altered physical design.
My hope – and, again, this is a complete flight-of-fancy on my part – is that Apple increases the iPhone screen size in addition to whatever performance and operating system benefits are added.
Adding a column of apps icons, for instance, would give an iPhone an approximately 4.4-inch display. Adding both a column and a row of icons would give iPhone a 4.7-inch screen, more in line with other bleeding edge phones on the market such as the Samsung Galaxy S III, the LG Optimus G and the Nokia Lumia 920.
But what fascinates me more about Apple skipping iPhone 5S and moving directly to iPhone 6 is the possibility of Apple creating truly disparate product lines.
If we get an iPhone 6 this summer, iPhone 5 likely drops in price, creating a two-tier product line – maybe three tier if iPhone 4S remains in the line – ala the three-model Motorola Droid RAZR line. iPhone 6 would become Apple's "premium" 4G LTE model, the iPhone 5 a more popularly-priced 4G LTE choice.
Since Apple does not and has never exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show, which is next week, we'll be putting aside all this speculation for the time being. But I'm guessing I'll have lots of new iPhone accessories to tell you about. Stay tuned.
