Latest iPhone 5 Rumors Reportedly Come Straight from Foxconn Worker

  • Share
  • Read Later
AFP / Getty Images

Chinese workers assemble electronic components at the Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen.

9to5Mac is reporting that “a reliable source at Foxconn in China” has revealed details about Apple’s next iPhone – namely that it’s “currently being geared up for production,” according to the blog.

As for the reliability of this source, 9t05Mac says, “This source is the same that indicated to us late last summer that the iPhone 5 wasn’t happening against the prevailing tide of information, and Apple was building the iPhone 4S model instead.”

(MORE: Apple’s Absent iPhone 5: Whose Fault Is It Really?)

The iPhone 5 apparently exists at Foxconn – where many of Apple’s devices are manufactured –in the form of “various sample devices” instead of one finished, ready-to-go device, but 9to5Mac reports that all of the samples have the following features in common:

4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them)

No teardrop-shaped devices as were rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness. Also longer/wider.

None of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor

None of the devices are final versions

The blog also posits that the lead-time allotted for the production of a new iPhone would line it up for a release around June of this year, just in time for Apple’s big developer conference when past iPhones have been unveiled. Apple recently bucked that trend by waiting until October to announce the iPhone 4S.

As with all Apple rumors, take this news with a grain of salt. That being said, the idea that the next iPhone might sport a bigger screen has been the subject of multiple rumors in the past and wouldn’t be a huge surprise, given the recent trend of larger and larger smartphone screens. The symmetrical thickness quip is a new one, however, so we’ll see if that ultimately pans out.

(MORE: Rumor Round-Up: The Future Smartphones of 2012)