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Second-gen iPhone Confirmed?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the getting-ahead-of-themselves-a-bit dept.

gadgetopia writes "ITWire is reporting that the Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta has seemingly confirmed a second generation of the Apple iPhone. Another report referenced by the article suggests the new model could come with a different case design. 'Quanta and Apple already enjoy a strong relationship, with Quanta building both MacBooks and iPods for Apple to sell worldwide, although Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reported to be building the first batch of iPhones due to arrive in the US market by the end of June. Reports suggest Quanta has received an order for 5 million iPhones which are to be shipped in September ... Presumably this could entail a 3G or even 3.5G HSDPA iPhone for European markets due to get the iPhone by the end of the year, or even the addition of more memory - imagine a 16Gb or even 32Gb iPhone, unlikely though those will be this year mainly due to the high cost of 16 or 32Gb of flash memory.'"

42 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Can we please get out the next OS first! by N3WBI3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Rather than a very expensive, albeit, nice phone can we please put out the OS we were origionally expecting this quarter..

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    1. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by catbutt · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Tiger is working well for me. An update would be nice, I suppose, but frankly I don't really care that much.

      I'm far more interested in seeing apple jump into the phone business and keep everyone else playing catch up.

    2. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by Ramble · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sorry, but catch up? The smartphones currently out there do way more than an iPhone does. It's too expensive for the casual user and no business would use it. The whole phone is basically an expensive gimmick only the brute hardcore Apple fans would buy.

      --
      "Oh boy"
    3. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by anagama · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm more interested in 10.5 -- multiple desktops finally integrated (not some overpriced add-on or underfeatured free add-on). I can only hope they add middle-click-paste as well, but I'll probably have to wait for 10.6.

      --
      What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    4. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by andy9701 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You can always by the family pack, which for Tiger costs $200 (a single user upgrade costs $130) and gets you 5 licenses. That's really a pretty good deal.

    5. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by shilly · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1) The two segments are business and consumer, not business and casual users. Plenty of consumers have a $350 iPod and a phone worth (at least) $150. Quite a lot have a BlackBerry as well. It seems reasonable to assume some will prefer to have one device to replace the first two, if not the third as well.
      2) Your view of what's useful and what's a gimmick for a phone is bizarre. Most mobiles are pretty shit at their core job of making and receiving calls -- it's a major PITA trying to merge two calls for example -- getting this kind of feature really really right is what counts. Visual voicemail, to take another example, is a step-change improvement in vmx management. Plenty of business users will be very keen to get their hands on those features, although whether they'll be able to or not will generally depend on factors beyond their control.

    6. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by DesertBlade · · Score: 4, Informative

      Current generation BlackBerries can play media and are cell phones, they provide all the features at less cost. Blackberry may be the standard in business, but they are moving into to the consumer markets with the Pearl, that is what I have and I see them more and more.

      --
      Half of writing history is hiding the truth.
    7. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by @madeus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As an early adopter I've owned (and occasionally trialed through work) loads of new phones - and developed 3rd party software for a couple (for fun).

      The software on most phones is appaling, no attention is paid to user experience. They are not built by people who understand how to put together a good UI or a robust and appropriate interface for a mobile device - and I can't imagine they've gone through any sort of meaningful usability testing.

      Smart phones are showcase of poorly designed software, with inconsistent behaviour, over complicated and badly organised system settings and unresponsive, sluggish and often unstable user interfaces - that are typically only half-implimented. This only started to be really visible once phones started getting complicated (as it's easy to make a simple system, like the early Nokia UI, easy to use).

      I'm sure my last 4 or 5 phones will technically have a lot more features than the Apple Phone when it comes out - I've got 5 year old phones that I'm sure will be able to claim a richer feature set - but in the same way I've had other, more 'powerful' MP3 players than my iPod, if the user experience is right, that's more important to me. I'd rather have a smaller subset of features that just work really well, rather than bunch of confusing settings and overly complicated menus and options that insist on getting in the way rather than just behaving in a simple, minimalist manner and doing what I'm actually likely to WANT it to do.

      I hope that in demonstrating how to get software right (which I have every confidence Apple will do - given their track record with things like the Newton) manufacturers will learn and develop similarly user-experience focused platforms with a similar level of polish. But I doubt it, after all they didn't learn from the Newton and the development of Palm OS has been royally screwed up.

      As much as I don't want to sound like a fanboy, it's actually depressing how good the the UI on the Newton was when I think that no PDA or smartphone I've owned or even heard of since (and that must be about 20) has even been HALF as good. Sony were making some great hardware till they halted Clie development (the PEG-TH55 is still an awesome peice of kit, several years on) and the latest Nokia Smartphone range is interesting (I've got an E61 ATM), and the Sharp Zarus PDA range is really nifty too, but without good software, the hardware is just wasted.

    8. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by NNKK · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have a question. If you actually _need_ a standard Unix system as your primary desktop, why the hell would you buy a Mac in the first place? What possible attraction could there be? You pay a premium for the hardware and get a system that, though it actually _is_ really Unix, despite what you seem to think, differs in some very important ways from most Unix systems.

      You seem to be ragging on OS X and its users just because it doesn't do what _you_ want it to. If it doesn't meet your needs, that's fine, but it's no reason to be an ass.

      Personally, I'm a unix geek, and I've been a happy PowerBook owner since late 2005. It works great as a desktop that "just works" + a unix command line environment, which is precisely what many of us are after. If you need to do heavy lifting that really _needs_ a typical *nix environment, OS X helpfully provides OpenSSH right in the default install. Login to your Linux box and go nuts.

      And if you just don't like Macs, that's fine, too. But your reasons for insulting OS X and its users are specious at best.

    9. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by DECS · · Score: 4, Informative

      It actually displays whatever buttons would make sense in the given context.

      How many tiny physical buttons do you think it needs? I've used everything from a Treo to a BBerry, and can't say physical buttons push my buttons. Dialing numbers or mixed number/text is annoying with a full mini keyboard, and is painful with T9. I for one welcome our new touch screen overlords.

      Recall seeing any keyboards on Star Trek? We have to make the move at some point in order to get into the future, and its not like Microsoft is going to usher in something new.

      Another point of interest is that nobody is crying about the LG Prada phone, which uses a similar arrangement of a touch screen, albeit using the horrific Flash Lite.

      Origins: Why the iPhone is ARM, and isn't Symbian
      Apple iPhone vs LG Prada KE850

    10. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by abigor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, it really is Unix. It's just a fucked over version, that's all. And it's fucked over in ways that reduce functionality.

      Could you elaborate on this? Please be specific. I write and deploy software to Unix (Linux, BSD, and occasionally Solaris) for a living, and I develop on a MacBook. It has served me very well, and I've found no areas in which it's really "fucked over" to reduce functionality. Well, I guess the lack of Gentoo-style start/stop scripts threw me for a bit, but that's not a global Unix thing.

    11. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by Mike+Buddha · · Score: 3, Funny

      Recall seeing any keyboards on Star Trek? We have to make the move at some point in order to get into the future, and its not like Microsoft is going to usher in something new. I'm sorry to be the one to burst your bubble but Star Trek isn't real. It's version of a keyboardless future isn't real. This future comes from the same minds that gave us Tachyon Fields, Phasers, and Transporters (also not real). It's not the product of any real cultural/technological process in which keys were determined to be inefficient, ineffective, or obsolete. It's surprising how often I have to point out that Star Trek is fiction on Slashdot. It's sad, really.
      --
      by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
    12. Re:Can we please get out the next OS first! by MikeFM · · Score: 2, Informative

      As somebody that has used, sold, and supported BlackBerries I have to hope that Apple can create a phone that does a better job with less issues because BBs are ugly and often difficult for users to use. They're not bad exactly - they're just not great. I'd love to see a BlackBerry response to the iPhone that produces a BB that is really powerful, nice looking, and easy to use.

      Of course, so far, I'm not sure the iPhone is even going to be that great. We'll have to wait and see how it handles real world usage.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  2. OpenMoko by fredan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And as an alternative there is OpenMoko which, of course, runs Linux and is complete open.

  3. European Release or Minor Rev? by Soukyan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Along with the speculation in the article, I have to simply speculate that the contract is for phones to be sold in another market, such as Europe. Or it could be a minor revision boost to coincide with new iPod revisions or some other flash-based announcement that Apple may make. From a business perspective, I have to think it is the former. I'm still interested to see the first revision of the iPhone on store shelves before I start worrying about a second revision.

  4. Not a second iPhone, but a widescreen iPod? by maubp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some have speculated that this is in fact a widescreen iPod, rather than a second revision of the iPhone (for a non-USA market?)

  5. How about voice dialing and better battery by Sciros · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Rather than more memory (aren't there iPods with that already?) how about they at least confirm that the current iPhone has voice dialing or make darn sure they put it into the next release. I can only imagine the number of idiots trying to press "buttons" on their flat touch screen while driving. (if they've confirmed it then nevermind, and that's good to hear)

    A longer-lasting battery is also a MUST if you want to use the sucker as *both* a media player/comp00tar and a phone. Want to watch a movie? Sure, but then you're out of a phone, buddy. Not so sure that's a great tradeoff. In-flight entertainment on long trips and something to call a buddy to pick you up from the airport? Better luck next time ^^

    So, things to look forward to in the next release perhaps.

    --
    I like basketball!!1!
    1. Re:How about voice dialing and better battery by crunzh · · Score: 2, Informative

      My Nokia N73 lasts 2-3 days when used to check email, make calls, take a few photos and listen to music. Its smaller than the Iphone but with a large display. So 1-2 days should not be impossible.

      --
      Visit http://www.crunzh.com/ for free software. Mac/Lin/Win
    2. Re:How about voice dialing and better battery by Sciros · · Score: 2, Informative

      At the moment it's 5 hours of video, web, or calls. Or 16 hours of music. Something like that, according to the specs someone posted on wikipedia. For a media player / web browser that's acceptable, but if you use it like most folks use such a device, I think you'll find little battery power left for calls. I know I'd never trust my Cowon A2 to have enough battery power to also be a phone for me, and that thing has a way longer-lasting battery than Apple's stuff.

      --
      I like basketball!!1!
    3. Re:How about voice dialing and better battery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I can only imagine the number of idiots trying to press "buttons" on their flat touch screen while driving."

      It will suck for the first couple months, and a few innocents will have to die to ensure the safety of the species, but I think we've figured out a way to rid society of yuppies and soccer moms who think they are so damn important that they need to speak on the phone while driving a 5000lb weapon.

      Of course, their vehicles are twice as heavy as those around them because they feel they are entitled to the safety afforded to their status, and that if it means they are twice as likely to kill an innocent, they've earned this.

      About two years ago, I was answering a phone call, and missed a redlight and nearly creamed someone. They pulled over to the side completely freaked out. I pulled back, even though it wasn't an accident and appologized saying I had absolutely no excuse and told them if they felt the need to call the police because of my wreckless driving, so be it, I'd wait. She said that she would have seen me if she hadn't been on the phone and said she was never going to drive while on the phone again either.

      Guess what? Two years later, and still won't answer the phone while driving. Pull the fuck over jackass. You'll be five minutes late. And yes, I was a fucking jackass too (and now an overly moralistic one to boot).

      I hope they make it so inconvenient to use the phone while driving that yuppies just naturally kill themselves off. No voice dialing for me...its the act of using these things that make them dangerous. Taking your eye off the road only makes it slightly more.

    4. Re:How about voice dialing and better battery by Jellybob · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Since it's running Mac OS, and Mac OS already has voice control built in I think it's a fairly safe bet it'll have voice dialing, and once it hits Europe it will be practically a requirement, since at least in the UK it is illegal to use a phone without hands free whilst driving.

  6. *waves iPhone around* by simong · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oooo look shiny. Sorry, that's an automatic reaction to iPhone stories.

    I think it means second production run, but probably for Europe. It will have to pass CE certification for Europe and I would guess that the European partners have probably pointed out that 3G would be a good idea as we have more of that than wifi at the moment.

  7. Wait a minute... by norminator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, Apple's going to release a product which was officially announced with tremendous fanfare 5 months before release, and now supposedly they're going to release the second rev 3 months after the release? And the 2nd rev order has already been placed with the manufacturer, even though the first rev won't be released for another month still? And it has a different case design (boy, that would piss off the accessories manufacturers)?

    There are so many things wrong with this "story" I don't know where to begin. I think one of two things is happening here:
    1) As someone above mentioned, this is a widescreen iPod (which has been rumored in the past to be released in September), not a new iPhone. Remember, both revisions of the Nano were announced in September as well. Or more likely,
    2) There is absolutely nothing to this rumor at all.

  8. These kind of news remind me of... by Masa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Adam Osborne and his statements, which led to the bankruptcy of his company, Osborne Computer Corporation.

    I'm not implying that Apple would face similar fate. I'm just wondering, why these kind of news does not damage the company nowadays like in the "good" old days.

    1. Re:These kind of news remind me of... by MBCook · · Score: 2, Informative

      As great as that story is, you should realize that it is largly a myth. While he did pre-announce, it was the Kaypro company that ate their lunch. See the bit in Wikipedia.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  9. Confirmation by geauxtiggers · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was in a Cingular store on Friday, talking with the store manager about the iPhone and number portability. He mentioned that a second version of the phone would be out for Christmas of this year. The later version is supposed to be 3G capable. Since Cingular doesn't have the 3G coverage all in place just yet for all cities, I am not too concerned about it. My nephew will get the first gen hand-me-down when the 3G one actually makes it to market.

    1. Re:Confirmation by soft_guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, I'm sure Apple trusted some manager at a Cingular retail outlet with that information. He was talking out of his ass.

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
  10. always one complainer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A phone is much better. No one knows what os you run but everyone will see my iPhone.

  11. The Onion Reported this First by __aawdrj2992 · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/apple_ hard_at_work_making

  12. For Europe ... already announced to ship Jan 2008 by gig · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple already announced the iPhone would ship in Europe in January 2008. Seems like these would be the European iPhones.

  13. fixed it for you... by Gary+W.+Longsine · · Score: 3, Funny

    And as an alternative there is OpenMoko which, of course, runs Linux and is incomplete, although it is open source, so you can help finish it.

    --
    If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
  14. Confirmed? by Hieronymus+Howard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Second-gen iPhone Confirmed?"
    How can you use 'confirmed' with a question mark? It's either confirmed or it's a rumour. The word 'confirmed' is not intended to be ambiguous. In this case, it is definitely not confirmed.

    1. Re:Confirmed? by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Question marks are often used in news headlines to make a libelous statement look more like a question, to avoid litigation. That's not the case here, but that is the origin.

      --
      Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  15. the Mom test by Gary+W.+Longsine · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I plan to test the iPhone by handing the iPhone to my Mom and asking her to call my brother. I suspect that she'll be able to do it, with no training. If I'm right, then the iPhone will be quite popular. Apple will wind up selling their "smart phone" to people who would never buy any of the "smart phones" on the market today, because they are too difficult to use.

    --
    If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
    1. Re:the Mom test by blhack · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I disagree with your test. A better one would be to hand it to her for a week, then try to take it away and see what happens. I have a blackberry, for the first few days or so, the interface was VERY strange to me, and it took a lot of pecking around before I figured out the philosophy of how everything was layed out. Now, I don't think i will ever own a different phone. Navigating through other peoples phones now is a pain, nothing is organized with any sort of logic, and the menus look like those of a fisher price toy.

      --
      NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
    2. Re:the Mom test by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except the difference between yours and GP's post is that his test is a more reliable way of seeing how these will sell, not how well the poeple that get one enjoy it.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  16. Try Googe by thegnu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte

    You may get the irony in this young troll's comment.

    (also, try Googing Googe before you get on my case)

    --
    Please stop stalking me, bro.
  17. The wider market consists of regular people.... by NDPTAL85 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes, catch up. Features are irrelevant when the User Interfaces to use them suck so much that mostly no one uses them. How many owners of Treos, Blackberrys and WM devices use even 40% of the features of their phones? The iPhone's breakthrough UI will enable regular folks to use MORE of their device then they could with other smartphones. So yes, in that regard which just so happens to be the MOST IMPORTANT ONE, the others will all collectively and individually be playing 'catch up'.

    --
    Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
  18. NOT a second-gen iPhone for US by EverlastingPhelps · · Score: 3, Informative
    There is no way that this is a US phone, if it is anything. All phones in the US have to be FCC approved. It is public record, and we would know if a design had been submitted. Everytime Apple changes the iPhone, they will need new approval, and it takes 5-6 months. Apple is not going to kill sales of the current iPhone by submitting a new design to the FCC before the current one even launches.

    Maybe it is a Canadian phone, maybe it is a European phone, maybe it is just an iPod. What is isn't is a next-gen US iPhone.

  19. No Feedback? by escay · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How can you design a 2nd generation model when there is zero consumer feedback to base it on?! Apple has always partially relied on consumers' criticism to initiate a design iteration, and justly so. Especially for a market that Apple is newly entering - does the phone capture good signal in different environments, is the price point good, do batteries blow up, is there something blatantly simple that they missed - these only come out after widespread usage (not intra-company circulation). It could be that the first design had flaws that Apple already noticed but are going ahead with it in order to keep the June date - that doesn't undermine the logic of waiting for feedback of customers as well before placing an order with Quanta.

    This is most definitely not a II gen iPhone. I would go with this being either a European/3G version or a widescreen iPod, assuming that news is true and not another fake email.

    --
    My sig has been answered.
  20. "Next"?! by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is the Osbou-- um, I mean -- iPhone one even out yet?

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  21. Finally! by TobyRush · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's about time! The picture I have of the first-gen unit has been great, but it has its limitations and the workarounds are cumbersome. I've been looking forward to a picture of a revised unit since the initial iPhone was announced; Apple's second-gen models are always more reliable than the initial ones.

    --
    Sam! If you will let me be,
    I will try them.
    You will see.