The next iPhone Unicorn

The next-gen iPhone has always been this mysterious / mythical creature that everybody craves for. The only difference is that it does become a reality within a definite period of time unlike unicorns or mermaids, though annoyingly delayed often.

The iPhone 4 has been a tremendous success for Apple Inc. and is officially it's best selling device till date. They now ship it to several other countries and thank Steve Jobs ( read as God ) it is on multiple carriers. Though it was plagued by antenna-gate and other reception issues, the iPhone 4 has come out strong as the most wanted gadget. Apple has to be complimented for it's customer service and gesture of giving free bumpers to many customers to resolve the above issues.

Now, what about the next iPhone? What's it going to be called? Bloggers have come up with suggestions like iPhone 5, 4S or 4GS. Honestly, iPhone 5 seems more relevant because it is going to run the awesome (partially adapted from Android though) iOS 5 and is also most probably be incorporating Apple's proprietary A5 processor Now if Apple decides with the name iPhone 4S or 4GS, like it did with 3GS, I am sure they will have their reasons.

The following is a wish-list for the next iPhone unicorn:-

• Better camera, preferably 8MP, as most high-end smart-phones do have them already
• 4G / LTE compatibility
• Better quality front-facing camera too
• Bigger display, may be around 4 inches
• A5 processor for sure
• Facetime over 3G/4G
• Better Google maps, must contain turn-by-turn directions as in Android
• Better battery life, replaceable battery would be great
• 64 GB iPhone
• Expandable memory
• HDMI out to external displays ( at least 720p would do)

I have excluded the dedicated hardware camera button because they elegantly solved that issue with the volume rocker key.

Now for the people whose contracts are up and are planning to upgrade to an iPhone, it's quite a challenge to decide whether to wait or not. June 6th keynote's 'One last thing' was certainly disappointing but let's hope for the unveiling to take place in September. My advice would be to wait till September because it is very much likely that for the same price the next-gen iPhone can be purchased. If you get the iPhone 4 now, the launch of iPhone 5 would make your device ancient and that's not what you would want! There's money for the status symbol quotient in there too.

Rumors have been floating around about the next iPhone, but no pictures or nothing very substantial yet like what Gizmodo did with iPhone 4. 

Apple recently started selling unlocked iPhone 4s in the US. Looks like Apple is trying to empty its inventory of iPhone 4s before the launch of the iPhone 5, which is kinda suspicious. Actually not suspicious, I am pretty sure of it. Fingers crossed!!