The iPhone 5 is facing the prospect a fall release after having seen its four predecessors all seeing the light of day during the summer. If Apple is indeed holding back the iPhone 5 for an extra season, there must be good reason for the delay. And that extra time gives the company the opportunity to add a host of features to the iPhone 5 which weren’t a part of the iPhone 4 era and might not have been a part of the iPhone 5 era either if not for the fact that Apple now has additional time to do something behind the scenes. 4G networking, a hyper-compatible hybrid model, and a T-Mobile rollout are among just some of the potential benefits from an iPhone 5 delay.
4G iPhone 5:
The earlier the iPhone 5 arrives, the lower the odds it includes 4G networking, and the reason is simple: Verizon and AT&T, the iPhone’s two U.S. carriers, are just barely getting their 4G feet wet. At present, a 4G iPhone 5 would be of use to almost no one who bought it, with most users having to instead rely on the older networks (3G GSM, CDMA) built into it for backward compatibility. But a fall iPhone 5 would come at a time when the two biggest carriers at least have some meaningful 4G presence, making Apple more likely to pull the trigger.
Hybrid iPhone 5:
It’s always just been a matter of time until Apple was able to pull off a single iPhone model which can talk to both the Verizon and AT&T networks, allowing customers to change carriers without having to change phones, as is the case with the current pair of incompatible iPhone 4 models. More time before the iPhone 5 launches means more time for Apple to pull it off.
T-Mobile iPhone 5:
This one feels like it’s more about politics than technicals. AT&T’s impending acquisition of T-Mobile sounds like a slam dunk for the latter offering the iPhone eventually. A later iPhone 5 release date means the merger will be further along, and increases the odds of the iPhone 5 coming to T-Mobile at launch.
Sprint iPhone 5:
Simply put: the greater the odds of a T-Mobile iPhone 5, the resulting greater odds of a Sprint iPhone 5. Regardless of what Sprint says, it doesn’t want to be the only U.S. carrier without the iPhone while also being the smallest post-merger.
iPhone 5 specs:
Apple’s battery life advancements appear to be as much about figuring out how to use the available juice more efficiently at this point as they are about packing more juice into a device. So the more time between now and the iPhone 5 launch, the more opportunities Apple will have to fine-tune the iPhone 5 experience such that it uses less power – and viola, more battery life to go around. Same thing goes for iPhone 5 storage capacity, as the prospect of a 64 GB iPhone has likely always come down to component availability. The further away the iPhone 5 launch date is from the iPad 2 launch, which used up 64 GB chips in abundance, the better.
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