Is This the New iPhone 5?

The Apple fan community and press love to speculate on what Apple will do next and what new products they will be coming out with. Now that we’ve got our hands on the Verizon iPhone and we know what the iPad 2 looks like and when it’s coming out, what could we possibly have to speculate about now? Why, the iPhone 5 of course.

With that in mind, here we go. Mac Rumors has a report via Taiwanese newspaper Economic Daily News citing anonymous Chinese sources which says that Apple is considering getting rid of the design of the current iPhone 4 and going back to a form factor similar to the first iPhone. Yes, that’s a long trail, but read on.

According to the report, the iPhone 5 would feature a milled aluminum backing with the antenna integrated into the rear Apple logo, which is also similar to the original, Wi-Fi only iPad. Hard to imagine what that might look like?

Fortunately, the folks at macotakara.jp have seen fit to put together some mockups for you to help spark that imagination. With the noted problems some users had (and are still having) with the iPhone 4 and its unfortunate antenna design, Apple needs to address this issue once and for all with the iPhone 5.

It’s not hard to believe that the company will take a design cue from the rest of its lineup of devices and change to next gen iPhone to more match the look and feel of its latest iPad and MacBook Air. Whatever they do, let’s hope it works. We should find out in June.