Apple’s next generation of smartphone, commonly dubbed iPhone 5, is still at the rumor stage, but sellers have already begun taking preorders.
Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce platform, have iPhone 5 on their list with mock-up pictures and purported technical specifications, Reuters reported. Some are asking deposit as high as 1,000 yuan ($160), and another seller by the name “Dahai99888” asked for a full payment of 6,999 yuan ($1,100).
“Demand is high. Yesterday someone just bought two phones. Altogether we have about two dozen orders,” said Taobao seller Xiayu to Reuters.
The highly anticipated phone is rumored to have a larger elongated screen than previous models. Some of the items listed on e-commerce sites supported such rumors.
Chinese sellers on alibaba.com are selling hard-shell and soft silicone cases for the iPhone 5, indicating an elongated design of the next Apple’s smartphone. The case also showed an earphone jack at the bottom, and one of the sellers told Reuters to “guaranteed” the cases were accurate, claiming they received the dimensions from “certain channels”.
Reuters also reported that the seller got the iPad 2 design right with correct placement for rear-facing camera on alibaba.com in early 2011.
Some of the other rumors about iPhone 5 include A6 quad-core processor, replaceable camera lenses, near field communications (NFC), and 4G LTE. The phone is also expected to have Apple’s upcoming mobile operating system, iOS 6, which is to have Apple’s own Maps that replaces Google Maps and an upgraded Siri voice function.
Given the fact that Apple launched the iPhone 4S in October of 2011, the same month release is most likely for iPhone 5. However, some rumors speculated that Apple may hurry its launch in order to compete with its challengers, such as Samsung Galaxy S3.
Apple has not responded to requests for comment on rumors, as usual.
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