iPhone 5

T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman confirmed that they would not be getting the iPhone 5 "this year." However, his statement could mean a lot of things.

According to one sales associate, Sprint will be offering the iPhone 4 to their subscribers in 2011, not the iPhone 5. This could be a mistake on the employee's part, or maybe both Sprint and T-Mobile customers will have to wait longer for the next generation device.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz thinks Apple is going to have a great year by offering the "iPhone 4-plus", a low-end replacement for the iPhone 3GS, on more carriers. Apple doesn't seem to be in a hurry to launch the iPhone 5, and could have decided to expand its customer base by only offering the revamped iPhone 4 to T-Mobile and Sprint. This could also be due to the iPhone 5 production delays mentioned by 9to5Mac a few days ago. If Apple is expecting iPhone 5 shortages in 2011, they could be limiting the amount going to new carriers until production picks up in 2012. According to 9to5's report, the iPhone 4-plus is flying off the production line, and Apple should have plenty available for the upcoming holiday season, but the iPhone 5 might be limited in numbers.

It's been quite some time since we've heard any new or interesting news about Apple's iPhone plans. The newest case design leak didn't offer any new info about the iPhone 5 that we didn't already know, and I'm getting bored of hearing about the larger home button. However, 9to5Mac did have some interesting news to spread about the rumored low-end iPhone, and some possible bad news about the iPhone 5.

According to 9to5, the new low-end iPhone 4 look-alike is flying off the production line, and Apple should be armed and ready with 10+ million for the holiday season. The iPhone 5 isn't as lucky, and is seeing continued design and production delays. 9to5 believes that the iPhone 4 clone will be in abundance while the iPhone 5 will see shortages until 2012.

The next iPhone 5 is rumored to have a larger home button that would make it possible to use gestures to perform actions without even touching the display area. Some reports even pointed to a home button area that did not involve a physical button, but instead had lighted indicators embedded in the bezel. These designs could be reality if a leaked iPhone 5 screen protector is the real McCoy.

At first glance the wide home button cutout appears to be the only difference between this screen protector and current models. The folks over at unwire.hk compared this product to an iPhone 4 in the photo above and the next generation screen protector is actually wider.

One of the major league mobile case manufacturers temporarily made an iPhone 5 product website live ahead of schedule. Apple hasn't even officially announced the product yet, however Case-Mate posted a page detailing several different case designs wrapped around a brand new next generation iPhone. According to the images, the next Apple smartphone will have a thinner design and aluminum back.

Unfortunately the leaked images don't reveal much of the front side. Still, it would appear as though the mute switch was moved to the opposite side of the device as has been previously seen in other leaked case designs. The cases were pictured in at least three different styles with multiple colors.

I never get the memos on what's hot or not, and I definitely didn't get the memo about the iPhone not being hip anymore. I'm not going to debate if the iPhone is "cool," but I have a feeling a lot of college kids are not carrying them because of the price, not because their dad owns one.

The acting president of HTC America had some interesting things to say at the Mobile Future Forward conference in downtown Seattle. Martin Fichter talked about Google buying Motorola, patent disputes and why his daughter thinks the iPhone is lame. You can read excerpts from the talk here, and read his quote about the uncool iPhone below!