Will Apple’s iPhone 5 be named after Steve Jobs?

In a glowing posthumous tribute to its legendary CEO Steve Jobs, rumours are growing that Apple Inc. will name its forthcoming and much-awaited iPhone 5 after the name of its co-founder.

An unofficial source close to the design of the new iPhone suggests that the ‘5’ in the iPhone 5 will be stylised to look more like an ‘S’ – as in Steve.

That makes sense, actually, considering that the earlier iteration of Apple’s smartphone – the iPhone 4S – did have an S at the end of it, with speculation about what the ‘s’ stood for. A number of Apple fans and fanatics believe the ‘s’ in the iPhone 4S stands for ‘speed’, others believe it denotes ‘stunning style’, or ‘siri’  and some even claim it stands for ‘soaring sales’.

Rumours about an Apple device being named after the legend are not new. Before the launch of the new iPad earlier this year, there was a lot of speculation about its name, and in a pre-launch survey conducted by Mobilesplease, a UK-based service that compares phones, 87 per cent of respondents thought that the name should in some way reference Jobs.

Forget Apple - Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic too paid a huge tribute to Jobs when, earlier this year, it painted one if its jets with a popular quote from Steve Jobs. In large red letters on the side of one of its Airbus A320 planes, it reads, “stay hungry, stay foolish.” So, it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that his own company may want to name the last big product that Jobs worked on after him.

Nevertheless, sources suggest that Apple insiders were aware of Steve Jobs’ condition last fall, when they were preparing for the launch of the latest iteration of the iPhone. And in the rush to launch the new device before Jobs departed – if rumours are to be believed, everyone on the ‘inside’ knew it was only a matter of time – Apple quickly cobbled together and launched whatever was ready by a certain date.

Apple managed to, in fact, launch the device just in the nick of time – Jobs died a day after the iPhone 4S was unveiled, and any delay in the launch might have jeopardised the fall sales numbers, at the least.

This year though, guilty of launching a half-baked product last year (it is rumoured that Jobs wasn’t entirely happy about the device rushed launch), Apple is taking its time and will launch a device that promises to Shift the paradigm, Set new Standards and Shake the Status quo – the iPhone S, that is – and that, it believes, will be the best tribute to its co-founder.

Rumours also point at the iPhone 5 being now released in October, instead of August. That may also be a tribute to Jobs, with the legend’s first death anniversary on October 5, a Friday – perfect time to unveil the device to meet the holiday season rush demand as well.

The new smartphone is expected to feature a complete design overhaul — the first one since 2010 when Apple released the iPhone 4.

Its touchscreen will not only be larger (4-inches) than the current iPhone, but also feature a new touchscreen technology altogether. The new technology, developed in-house by Apple, will allow for a stronger and thinner screen. Besides, it will 5 will pack some extra punch and include an impressive quad-core A6 chip.

But will it manage to maintain Apple’s narrowing lead over competition, especially the Samsung Galaxy S3, which seems to be enticing a number of Apple’s lesser fans into its fold? While we’ll find that out this October, one thing’s for sure – Apple won’t leave any Stone unturned in its quest to meet its late co-founder’s expectations of the last big project that he worked on.

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