MemeStreams | iPhone 5 - September Unveiling

The iPhone 5 is being prepared to be unveiled in September. Apple is reportedly also in negotiations with Verizon Wireless for FaceTime. How will that affect iOS developers?

The iPhone 5 didn't appear on stage when Steve Jobs unveiled the future of iOS last week, but 9to5Mac reports that it's currently scheduled to be unveiled in September. According to the iOS 5 SDK, the next iPhone will be available in at least two models - codenamed N93 and N94. Verizon has already confirmed twice that their version will offer global roaming capability like offered by a range of other Verizon phones.

Unlike 9to5Mac, we do not believe that there's going to be one specific model for Verizon Wireless and AT&T, as it's more likely that we'll see GSM and GSM + CDMA models. The GSM version will cater to GSM carriers like always (with added frequency support for T-Mobile), while the GSM + CDMA model will cater to CDMA carriers. As such, whenever the iPhone 5 is released, it'll fit nicely into the carrier system.

Over the last few months, there's been a lot of talk about Apple looking to disrupt the carrier system. However, the massive iPhone 3GS + iPhone 4 success we've been witnessing in the last half year, comes as a result of the opposite. Carriers have turned Apple into a success by letting their subscribers afford owning an iPhone. Should Apple choose to step on carriers' toes, the fun will disappear as quickly as it appeared.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple is reportedly in negotiations with Verizon Wireless for allowing FaceTime usage on the carrier's 3G EV-DO network. Should Apple want you to use key iCloud features over the same network, they'll probably enter into further negotiations. According to Daring Fireball, carriers were not aware of iCloud until you and I heard about it. As such, we could easily be talking 2025 before iCloud becomes fully operational on carrier networks on a global scale.

As far as iMessage is concerned, there have been numerous reports about it being the kind of service that will make SMS redundant. When Verizon Wireless introduced the KIN phones last year, we hoped those phones would pave the way for a new generation multimedia messaging like iMessage represents. The carrier killed those phones instead. Carriers make deals with manufacturers all the time, but it remains to be seen how keen they are to make deals with Apple when it comes to specific Apple services like Facetime, iCloud and iMessage.

In the last year or so, there has been an uprising on the Web against carriers. In practice, the fact is that what the Web has protested against, is the agreements that many of the same people are now expecting Apple to make with the carriers for the iPhone 5 powered by iOS 5. There has never been any doubt in our mind that carriers and manufacturers need to continue making deals, as making networks fully open over night will make everybody suffer.

The fact that Apple has now started negotiations with carriers is a good thing, but let there be no mistake about it: those deals will be made at the expense of the iOS developer community, no matter how the agreements end up looking like. As long as iPhone users want Facetime, iCloud and iMessage, that fact will not be debatable, as Apple needs to think about their users first and foremost, then developers.

If Apple has data, something they indeed have, that indicates that the iOS experience should evolve in a certain direction, then they'll make that happen. Of course, there's always the chance that iOS users would have behaved differently if they knew what it would lead to, but let's keep in mind that most iOS users aren't aware of that fact, and will never become aware of that fact.

iPhone 5 - September Unveiling