In MEGATechNews’ previous look at Apple’s next generation hardware, “What We Know about iPhone 5 and iPad 3 (Sort of),” we predicted a refresh of the current iPhone 4. News today from Redmond Pie confirms our original suspicions about Apple’s upcoming plans.

Pegatron Technology was the subcontract manufacturer for the CDMA-based iPhone 4′s delivered to Verizon. Leaked information from sources now point to an Apple order to Pegatron for 15 million CDMA “iPhone 5″ units with an A5 processor and updated 8 megapixel camera. Ching!

Regardless whether Apple wants to call this unit the iPhone 5 or an iPhone 4S, the facts point to this being a minor refresh of the existing iPhone 4. No major mechanical changes are expected for the form factor with the exception of a re-designed back cover made of aluminum or possibly some other space-age composite material.

That Apple would still have separate GSM and CDMA models at this juncture is something of a puzzle as the Qualcomm chipset used in the CDMA version of the iPhone is said to be a “world-phone” chipset capable of supporting both standards. We can only surmise possible Apple contractual obligations or pricing issues for Qualcomm’s chipset contributing to this situation.

However, this revelation further strengthens the assertion that the new iPhone is a refresh of the existing design as opposed to a totally new one. For all we know, Apple just dropped in the A5 processor and the new camera sensor and called it a day. Expected release is this coming September. Ching!

Source: Redmond Pie