Edible Apple

Corroborating a report that first surfaced this past March, Reuters is reporting this morning that Apple’s iPhone 5 will utilize a smaller dock connector. So instead of the 30-pin connector we’ve all grown to know and love, the iPhone 5 will implement a noticeably smaller 19-pin connector “to make room for the earphone moving to the bottom.”

Yep, another change is that the headphone jack is moving to the bottom of the device, which may sound like a big adjustment, but it’s how things have been on the iPod Touch for some time now.

The report adds:

That would mean the new phone would not connect with the myriad of accessories such as speakers and power chargers that form part of the ecosystem around iPods, iPads and iPhones, without an adaptor.

That means new business, analysts say.

So what was the impetus for a smaller dock connector?

Well the simplest and therefore most likely explanation is that space inside the phone is at a premium and anything Apple can do to save space, and thereby make the battery as large as can be, is worth the effort.

As we explained a few months back

Notably, a number of rumors have pointed to the iPhone 5 not only housing a larger screen, but also support 4G LTE networks. These two factors, even by themselves, but especially when taken together, demand outstanding battery life. The current lineup of 4G enabled Android handsets sport notoriously poor battery life.

The current 30-pin dock connector is by no means terribly large, but when you have a device as advanced and capable as a modern day smartphone, every piece of real estate, no matter how small, is incredibly important. Also, remember that when commenting on Apple’s patience with respect to rolling out 4G equipped iPhones, Tim Cook stated that 4G chipset designs were too bulky to meet Apple’s stringent design objectives.

And what might this smaller dock connector look like? Well take a gander below.

The image above is a still (courtesy of MacRumors) taken from a video of what purports to be an iPhone 5 back cover.

via Reuters