iPhone 5 launch delay caused by overheating A5 chips?

Summer has traditionally been the launch window for Apple’s iPhone range, but 2011’s hotest months have significantly lacked new smartphone hardware from the Cupertino team. new rumours now suggest that the iPhone 5 launch has been held back due to overheating processor issues.

The A5 chip, more powerful than the A4 chip found in the iPhone 4, is expected to feature in the iPhone 5 as it did in the iPad 2. However, squeezing the processor into a smaller frame is causing the new iPhone to overheat. The larger iPad 2 chasis gives the A5 chip room to breathe, while the imaginably significantly smaller iPhone 5 casing does not.

According to Chinese tech site Sohu.com, this will lead to the iPhone 4S launch that so many have rumoured later this year, while the mjor iPhone 5 re-design won’t touch down until next year.

That’s not all bad news though, as Sohu predict that the iPhone 5 launched next year will then have the as-yet-unseen A6 chip running the show.

It’s worth taking this one with a pinch of salt. We’d imagine that iOS 5 concerns are what are really taking Apple’s time up, not to mention the potentially lucrative sales period that launching in September, so close to the Christmas rush, would offer.

Via: 9to5Mac