If the Next iPhone 5s Comes in Colors - It Might Look Like This

In addition to all the other rumors about the next iPhone, one that is not inconceivable (and certainly interesting) is that the next iPhone could come in colors like the iPod touch does. Not a totally crazy idea, the only question is: how. Like in many things in this world, simplicity is best.

John Brownlee cites a French article with a more iPod touch-like take on what an iPhone 5C (“C” for color) could look like. As John points out, this isn’t terribly likely. Why? Simple manufacturing. It took a long time for Apple and Foxconn to get the iPhone 5 right, they aren’t going to shelve that just to give us iPhones in pretty colors. While the concepts look cool:

It’s the concepts at the top of the post that are much more likely, at least at first. As John points out, making anodized aluminum parts in different colors isn’t hard. Apple could probably start doing that right now if they wanted to. I like the color-white contrast as well (the glass part), but the color and black might work too.

The main point here is that one of the reasons that we see a design style (iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, ?) based on a previous one is that Apple needs to make sure that they can get the most out of the cost of each design change. Right now Apple is supporting (as they often do) two distinct iPhone body designs (iPhone 4 series and 5). The 3GS was retired with the 5. Keep manufacturing as simple as possible. I’d even wager that when the next iPhone is released the iPhone 4 will be retired leaving the 4S and maybe two models of the 5 (thought that would be a stretch I think).

So, the final question is: iPhone in color, yes or no?