Edible Apple

In what’s become a routine of sorts, it hasn’t taken long for developers to find data strings in iOS 5 that point to unreleased models of both the iPad and iPhone.

Apple tends to label its hardware with a series of two digits. So, for example, the original iPod might be referenced as 1,1. A major hardware upgrade would be referenced as 2,1 while a minor upgrade would be referenced as 1,2. In other words, major hardware revisions effectually increase the first digit while more minor updates or upgrades increase the second digit.

So with that said, data strings discovered in the iOS 5 firmware have revealed references to iPad3,1 and iPad3,2. These two iPad models naturally refer to the 3G and wi-fi versions. As a point of interest, the current iPad has 3 separate reference points – “iPad2,1” for Wi-Fi, “iPad2,2” for GSM, and “iPad2,3” for CDMA. So the fact that the next-gen iPad is only referenced by two distinct data strings tends to reinforce previous reports that Apple’s next-gen iPhone and iPad will be a worldmode device with a dual GSM/CDMA chipset from Qualcomm.

As for the iPhone, iOS 5 references both iPhone4,1 and iPhone4,2, which, to be honest, aren’t entirely new and were spotted back when iOS 4.3 first dropped earlier this year. But to clear up any confusion, the iPhone 3G was designated as iPhone1,1 which explains why the next-gen iPhone is referred to as iPhone4 as opposed to iPhone5.

TUAW writes:

Interestingly, there are no mentions of a new iPod touch. If there really is no iPod touch 5 ready to launch in September (the typical iPod refresh time), sources believe it could be because Apple is reserving the spotlight for another member of its iOS family, namely the iPhone 5.

Of course, experience has shown that model registrations do not mean that these items always become an actual shipping product. For example, it took almost a year for the iPhone 3,3 (the iPhone 4 for Verizon) to ship, and the iPhone 3,2 never became a product. Sources believe that’s because alleged carrier deals probably fell through for a third iPhone 4.

Curiously, no references to the iPod Touch were found.

Discuss…