Speculation: iPad 2 and iPhone 5

It's already February and I haven't listed the specs for all the upcoming gadgets.  My bad.  I'll start with the Apple products.

The Obvious: Thinner, Better, Faster
As usual, the next iPad and iPhone will likely be faster due to upgraded RAM or an upgraded processor (likely dual-core) or both.  The iPad 2 might be thinner, but the iPhone 5 probably won't because Apple already went through a major design change with the iPhone 4 after three phones with the same design.  They aren't likely to change it up again (except to fix that pesky antenna problem).  The next iPad will come out in April or May and the next iPhone will be released in June or July.

iPad
The next iPad should have a CDMA antenna so it can be available through Verizon.  Verizon has already promised a Verizon iPad, although the iPad 2 wasn't specifically mentioned.  The iPad will NOT have the rumored SD card slot if for no other reason than it would ruin Apple's tiered pricing for different amounts of storage.  Front and back cameras are rumored.   I definitely agree with the front-side camera because it would mean Facetime was available on one more device.  AppleInsider says it might have a mini DisplayPort.  A price drop is somewhat out of character for Apple, but it would help them compete with the cornucopia of Android tablets that will be release this year.  A price drop on the more expensive models is more likely than a price change on their cheaper models.

CrunchGear has a good article on what might and might not be in the iPad 2.  I agree with them on most of it, especially the thinner body and better speakers.  I disagree with the resolution.  Putting a retina-display-style screen on such a large screen would be expensive (though not impossible).  Upping the resolution slightly is more likely and could be done without "awkward" resizing of elements.

It will run iOS 4.3.

iPhone
The next iPhone will also be available on Verizon, so don't get that iPhone 4 yet.  Seriously, just wait 4 months.

The iPhone 5 is rumored to have NFC (near field communication).  Apple doesn't add features to their gadgets unless the features are implemented well, so if the phone does have NFC, you can bet that it will be set up to make payments.  There is little else you can do with NFC.  Apple will have partnered with credit card companies or perhaps worked out a payment system through Verizon and AT&T.  It wouldn't make a lot of sense to force users to pay their bills through iTunes.

It might have 4G.  There have been rumors that the next iPhone will have both a CDMA (Verizon) and GSM (AT&T) antenna since the Verizon iPhone 4 has a baseband chip that supports both technologies.  That chip also supports HSPA+ (AT&T's initial "4G" network), but it doesn't have anything to do with LTE (Verizon's 4G network).  If they add in support for LTE, then it would support Verizon's current 4G network and AT&T's future 4G network, while possibly supporting AT&T's current 4G network and both 3G networks.  In short, it would be a multi-carrier future-proof phone.  That would be great, but a bit out of character for Apple, who only puts the bare minimum of features in their phones, unless those features are shiny and pretty. But by then, most new Android phones will have 4G.  Hard to call.

Price will be the same.  No reason to change that.

There will be a 64GB model.

Some software updates to catch up with Android features.

iPhone Nano
The blogsphere has been awash with rumors of a smaller, cheaper iPhone ever since the Wall Street Journal posted this rumor.  It could be true, but it seems like a mistake.  Supposedly, the phone would have less storage, but MobileMe or iTunes would allow users to instead stream music from the Internet, or from their computers through the Internet.  Thus, if you're without Internet, you're without music.  It would also be "half the size of the iPhone 4", which would make Internet browsing ridiculously bad if this means the screen is half the height.  Currently, the iPhone 3GS is $50 on contract (and other Android phones are even cheaper), so I don't see the point of an iPhone Nano unless it is super cheap without a contract.  There are Apple fanboys that will buy anything with a fruit logo on it; perhaps Apple will release this just to test their loyalty.

That's it for Apple.  I'll post soon (hopefully) with Android and WP7 speculation.


Update:  The iPhone Nano didn't sound likely. The New York Times said today (2/17) that Apple is considering a cheaper phone, but not a smaller phone.  This won't happen either, at least not this year.  Old iPhones are already cheap: the 3GS is $50, and a used 3G will run you ~$150 with no contract on eBay.  The only way Apple could compete with their old phones and successfully release a new, cheaper "iPhone Express" would be to make a phone that costs around $200 and somehow isn't worse than a 3G.  They can't, so I don't think they will even try.