The iPhone 5 is rumored to be announced on September 15, but many media outlets are reporting there may be new iPhone part shortages.
According to Examiner.com, Apple has contracted its LCD screen for the new iPhone to three manufacturer: Japan Display Inc., LG, and Sharp Electronics.
According to the report, Sharp has fallen behind schedule and its target date of shipping its display screens at the end of this month has been delayed because of manufacturing problems.
According to Examiner.com and Cult of Mac, the rivalry between Apple and Samsung will continue as Samsung has plans to file a lawsuit against the iPhone maker once they announce the release date of the new iPhone.
Cult of Mac states, "Samsung is understandably mad," and "if Apple even thinks about releasing an iPhone 5 with LTE they will sue them immediately."
With the new iPhone's rumored announcement coming in weeks, Apple's partner PowerOn is offering up to $345 on old iPhones that are in perfect condition.
The offer is fulfilled through the "Reuse and Recycling Program." Accoring to bloggers using the program, the site has offered $280 for lightly-used 32 GB 4S models. In order to get the $345 quote, the 4S must be in "perfect" condition.
Apple is not involved in the transaction between PowerON , but is partners with the company.
Fore more information, visit store.apple.com/us/browse/reuse_and_recycle
One new rumored iPhone 5 feature being discussed is an improvement to AirPlay, also known as “AirPlay Direct."
According to computerworld.com , AirPlay Direct will allow iOS devices to stream audio directly without need of a Wi-Fi network, using Bluetooth.
The iPhone 5 will need a " TD-SCDMA chipset" if it wants a larger share of the China smartphone market, where it currently ranks seventh and Samsung is first, eweek.com reports .
Apple may be ecstatic about the landmark $1 billion patent war it won against Samsung, but a recent report shows that Apple is a lightweight contender in a much more crucial battleground.
Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market was just a measly 7.5% during the first half of 2012, according to IHS iSuppli . That put the company in seventh place, behind Samsung (No. 1), Nokia (No. 5) and a host of native brands, including Lenovo, Coolpad , Huawei and ZTE .
That's not a position Apple is accustomed to -- in nearly every other region of the world where it sells iPhones, Apple is in either first or second place.
Seventh certainly not where the company wants to be in the critical Chinese market. China is set to become the largest smartphone market in the world later this year, IHS iSuppli says, with 160 million devices expected to ship by the end of 2012. That's more than double the 67 million smartphones that were shipped in 2011. Next year, the analysis firm expects the Chinese market to grow by another 26%, topping 200 million smartphones.
If Apple wants to grab a larger slice of that rapidly growing pie, it may have to make some concessions to Chinese consumers.
Price is a big issue -- the iPhone is a big-ticket item by Chinese standards. Phones aren't commonly subsidized by wireless carriers in China like they are in the United States, putting a top-tier device like the iPhone outside the price range of many Chinese consumers.
For those customers who would have to save up months of paychecks to purchase an iPhone, many instead opt for an array of pre-owned devices and knock-offs, which are widely popular in China.
But Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the company has no plans to offer a less feature-rich device to compete with lower-cost smartphone manufacturers in the country.
"I firmly believe that people in the emerging markets want great products like they do in developed markets," Cook told analysts on a conference call in July. "And so we're going to stick to our knitting and make the best products. And we think that if we do that, we've got a very, very good business ahead of us."
Another strategy could be to develop an iPhone compatible with China Mobile's network, which has nearly 700 million subscribers.
"Among all the international smartphone brands competing in China, Apple is the only one not offering a product that complies with [China Mobile's] air standard," said Kevin Wang, the IHS report's author, in a press release. "For Apple, this is a huge disadvantage."
There have been rumblings and rumors of negotiations between China Mobile and Apple for years, but nothing has come of those talks yet.
Still, it's not an insurmountable problem for Apple. No single smartphone maker has a dominant lead in China -- No. 1 Samsung controls only 21% of the market.
Another research firm, IDC, is reporting somewhat rosier numbers for Apple. IDC puts Apple in fourth place -- not seventh -- with 10.1% of the Chinese smartphone market. That's still far behind Samsung (19%), but much closer to Lenovo (11%) and ZTE (10.4%).
"When you get right down to it, China is a gigantic freaking market,"
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