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Three Practical iPhone 5 Hardware Updates You Won't See On Wednesday

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What will Tim Cook remove from the iPhone? (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

This is the traditional weekend for looking at the upcoming Apple announcement on Wednesday, which the whole world is pretty sure is going to be the next iPhone, and make some predictions. Rather than that, I decided to make up a wish list of items that seem to be asked for by the mobile community when looking at a new smartphone... and then argue why they have no place in Tim Cook's first smartphone.

First up is a MicroUSB connector. It's widely reported that the 30-pin dock connector is being replaced with a new dock, and unfortunately it seems to be a proprietary 9 pin port. Which is going to be fabulous for extra sales in the Apple Stores and online, but a bit of a gotcha for those who have built up a collection of cables, chargers and battery extenders.

I wish they had chosen microUSB and not an option that seems better suited to boosting their bottom line, but new users in Europe, there will be a halfway house.

New European regulations introduced in 2011 require new phones in Europe to support charging via MicroUSB. There will be likely be a new dock to micro USB connector peripheral in the European retail packaging, which is allowed, but for everyone else expect one to be on offer for around ten dollars.

Expect lots of talk about speed and convenience around the new dock, but I still think it's smoke and mirrors to squeeze more profit out of the user.

The replaceable battery is always something that comes up with many users, and here's where Apple's design flair comes in. A battery that can be switched out needs to be a regular shape and have extra packaging around the battery. The battery compartment also needs extra packaging, and it adds to the complexity and the size of the device. Much of Apple's kudos is in design, and they've decided that people would prefer to have a smaller and cuter device rather than the option to change the battery.

And when the battery runs out of cycles, there'll be a new iPhone out they can buy.

I'm sure Apple would give similar reasons for skipping over space to extend storage through a microSD card. HD recording takes up a huge amount of space, and anyone doing a significant amount of video on their iPhone needs to leave a lot of space on their phone, or sync frequently back to their laptop.

What's interesting here is that the majority of people who have an SD card in their smartphone chuck in a big card and simply leave it there. If that's the case, Apple's thinking must be to push the customer to go for the larger storage options when buying the iPhone. Same result for the regular user, but Apple retains the income.

While it's not strictly hardware on the phone, for all the talk of design, looks, and strengthened glass, the first thing new owners are going to do is pick up an iPhone case. There have been other manufacturers that have supplied a case in the retail packaging such as Nokia with the Lumia 800, and it does give a feeling that you have bought something special.

Apple doesn't need to promote the illusion that their phone is special, everyone does that for them. In fact by preying on that nature they're pretty much guarantee every new iPhone is going to have some sort of covering around it, either one of their own bumpers, or a licensed third-party case. There are many reasons that Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Squeezing every drop of profit throughout the supply chain is one of the reasons, and the supply chain ends with the users. For all the talk of design, ease of use, and simplifying the smartphone, if they can switch the cost of some components from the bill of materials into the profit column, they'll do so aggressively, and with a smile.

So here's what I'll be watching out for on Wednesday. What are we going to be told is no longer needed on the smartphone; what is never used; and what can be done better in software? In short, what has Apple worked out they can remove from 2012's iPhone?