Apple is expected to announce a new, more powerful version of its popular smartphone on Tuesday, more than a year after it unveiled the iPhone 4. A number of changes are anticipated in the new iPhone, the biggest of which will likely be under the hood: the inclusion of Apple’s latest iOS mobile software, iOS 5, which will include things such as wireless device setup and content synching as well as beefed-up camera, email and Web-browsing apps. A new service called iMessage will allow iOS 5 users to send text messages to each other over Wi-Fi or wireless carriers’ data networks, while a folder called Newsstand will corral newspaper and magazine app subscriptions in one place to make it easier to find them. The new iPhone is also likely to include Apple’s forthcoming iCloud service, which will store content such as music, documents, apps and photos on Apple’s servers and let customers access them wirelessly on numerous devices. It’s been 15 months since Apple began selling the iPhone 4 last June. The first iPhone was revealed in 2007, and the phone has been popular from the start; the rollout of Apple’s iTunes App Store in 2008 boosted the smartphone’s popularity. In addition to gaining millions of fans over the years—39 million iPhones were sold just between January and the end of June—the iPhone and its large App Store have sparked fierce competition from other smartphone makers, such as those using Google’s Android software, which was first rolled out in 2008.
Today’s poll question: Do you plan on buying an iPhone 5, when available?
