A prominent industry analyst expects Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone to fulfill unprecedented demand and “shatter” previous records set by the wildly popular iPhone 4.
According to Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities, Apple will easily top its “personal best” of 1.7 million handsets sold in three days with the launch of the fifth-generation iPhone.
As White notes, the iPhone is currently available on 228 carriers worldwide, which provides Cupertino with the opportunity to execute even greater sales this year.
Meanwhile, an expected “aggressive” roll-out of the new smartphone, complete with a media blitz, will allow Apple to ramp up sales even more quickly compared to previous campaigns.
Despite ample evidence to the contrary, White still believes Apple will introduce a radically redesigned handset this Tuesday, with an aluminum unibody design that will be “more aesthetically pleasing but also stronger, lighter, and avoid the back-side ‘glass breaks'” of last year.
“With this new enclosure, we believe this will provide Apple with the opportunity to expand the display size by at least one half of an inch to 4 inches and hopefully bigger,” White wrote in an investors note obtained by AppleInsider.
“[In addition], Apple will clearly need to upgrade the processor speed to at least a dual-core 1.2GHz to match the Samsung Galaxy S II, while upgrading to a 8 mega pixel 1080p camera that is now also on the Galaxy S II.”
However, White does not expect the next iPhone to be compatible with true 4G long-term evolution networks, but does view recent evidence of an HSPA+ compatible iPhone (with theoretical 4G-equivalent speeds) as a legitimate possibility.
Finally, White speculated that the new iPhone could be a “world phone” compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks – which would allow Apple to manufacture one handset for use on different carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon in the States.
