Sprint first unveiled the device at CES as part of its initial LTE portfolio, but the May launch shows it planning to follow the same seeding strategy it’s pursuing with its smartphones: By pre-selling LTE devices, its customers can take immediate advantage of the new 4G service when it launches.

Customers will have to put up with limited mobile broadband coverage initially – its Clearwire-run WiMAX network covers only 130 million people, while LTE will launch in 10 markets. But Sprint plans to ramp up quickly, building an LTE footprint covering 250 million people in 260 markets by the end of 2013. Once LTE is live, Tri-Fi customers will get to choose between two 4G options where they are available and fall back on Sprint’s CDMA EV-DO networks where they aren’t.

While Sprint’s smartphone data plans remain unlimited, its capped hotspot plans could definitely use some work. It doesn’t appear to changing its pricing policies for LTE, which could cause careless customers to run up enormous data bills. While Sprint’s plan of tier pricing undercuts most of its competitors, the carrier still engages in the medieval practice of charging punitive overage fees. If you exceed your data cap, charges of 5 cents per minute kick in, which works out to be $50 a gigabyte.

The plans for the device start at $34.99 for 3 GB a month, but it also offers several big bucket options: $49.99 for 6GB of combined 3G/4G data or $79.99 for 12GB of 3G/4G data. While at CTIA Wireless in New Orleans on Wednesday, Sprint announced that the new HTC EVO 4G LTE would be available on May 18 as well.

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Design

Early case prototypes, anonymous sources and even some spy photographs seem to be reaching some kind of consensus about the physical design of the upcoming iPhone 5. The latest information seems to indicate we’ll see a thinner device, with a slight teardrop taper to the back of the phone, a larger, edge-to-edge display (with either the same or slightly increased resolution) and a mute button moved to the side opposite the one where it currently rests. Another intriguing possibility is a larger home button, which could double as a touch-sensitive surface for gesture input.

There’s also a contradictory crop of rumors that suggest the next iPhone will pretty closely resemble its predecessor when it comes to physical design. It’s possible both descriptions could be accurate, if Apple is indeed planning to launch multiple lines of iPhone this time around, including a more affordable version. Recent photos have claimed to depict just such a device, closely resembling an iPhone 4, but with a plastic outer protective layer, instead of the Gorilla Glass currently used.

Internals

Just what kind of performance benefits will the iPhone 5 offer? According to reports, we should see the A5 processor that powers the iPad 2 make the jump to the smartphone, as well as a dual-mode Qualcomm GSM/CDMA cellular network chip (which will make it possible to use the iPhone as a world phone). Another pretty safe bet is an 8-megapixel rear camera sensor, which will hopefully make the iPhone an even better choice for mobile photo buffs.

Some early rumors also claimed Apple would introduce NFC in the new iPhone, and one report from last month suggested the new device would pack a 3-D rear camera, but neither of these reports seems likely to be true at this stage.

One possibility that remains on the table is that Apple will once again introduce a new, smaller variant of SIM card with the iPhone 5. A report from May said European carrier Orange was working with Apple on developing a new SIM card standard that would be even smaller than the micro SIM currently used in iPads and the iPhone 4. A smaller SIM would allow Apple to devote more room inside the iPhone to other components, like batteries, and/or reduce the size of the physical case.

When we’ll see it (and who gets it first)

Before today, all signs seemed to be pointing to a September launch for the next iPhone. But AllThingsD reported early Monday morning that, according to multiple sources, the launch wouldn’t come until October, and possibly late October at that. AllThingsD is quite well-connected at Apple, and it’s possible this was an engineered leak designed by Apple to control expectations among consumers and investors. It could be that September was the original expected release window, but something has led to a slight delay.

Apple will probably stage the release of the iPhone 5, as it has done in the past. Recent reports claim the U.S. will see it first, followed by a wider international release a month after. While the anticipated release date is October in today’s report, we might still see this kind of delay between domestic and international launches. The iPhone 4 initially launched in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan, then hit a number of other markets about a month later. Look for a similar plan this time around, although maybe with a different initial pool of countries, since Apple’s biggest potential markets are changing.

The big question mark remains whether or not Apple has decided to finally develop a second, cheaper iPhone line concurrently with its primary device. COO Tim Cook has suggested that they are interested in doing so, and the benefits in terms of how it would help iOS continue to compete with Android globally seem apparent. But Apple has also never seemed swayed by populist motivators, so it remains far from a sure thing. What do you think: Will we or won’t we see a cheaper iPhone in 2011?

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Shammo originally let it spill that the Verizon iPhone would be a “global device” during the carrier’s quarterly results conference call back in April. Today, he reiterated that the next iPhone will be available at the same time as AT&T, and that it will be a dual-mode device for global use. The current AT&T iPhone is much more usable internationally because it uses a GSM antenna, and most international cellular networks use GSM technology. Support for both CDMA and GSM networks would make the Verizon iPhone just as useable overseas.

While Shammo didn’t say whether or not the next iPhone will support LTE networks, he did say that whether or not LTE is supported by Apple is “a bigger issue for Apple than it is for us.”

Apple is a company known for being incredibly tight-lipped about upcoming product releases, and you can bet that a senior executive at a partner company running around telling everyone who will listen specific details about its next iPhone is not going to go over well at Cupertino. It’s been widely speculated that the next iPhone will be a dual-mode phone, thanks in part to the Verizon iPhone 4′s Qualcomm cellular chip, which is technically capable of working with both GSM and CDMA networks. But even when changes are so widely expected as to be pretty much a given, Apple never comments on or verifies technical details about future products.

I imagine Shammo is the subject of some very irate calls from Apple HQ right now.

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Shammo’s statement regarding the next iPhone came when he was asked about slow average revenue per unit growth during the quarter, which saw the introduction of the iPhone. His exact words, as per Barron’s :

The fluctuation, I believe, will come when a new device from Apple is launched, whenever that may be, and that we will be, on the first time, on equal footing with our competitors on a new phone hitting the market, which will also be a global device.

Currently, the iPhone 4 used on the Verizon network sports a Qualcomm world-mode chip that’s technically capable of doing dual-mode duty, but the device lacks a SIM card slot, and the antenna design used appears to be optimized for CDMA-only use. The iPad 2, likewise, uses the same chip but features different, network-specific antenna designs for both the CDMA and the GSM versions.

Aside from the “global device” mention, also note that Shammo is careful to say “whenever that may be” when talking about the next iPhone’s potential launch window. It’s funny that Shammo would be so careful to sidestep the sensitive topic of when the new iPhone will arrive (recent rumors suggest a September launch) but makes an arguably bigger blunder around the iPhone’s unannounced capabilities. Whenever it arrives, I hope it’s indeed a world phone, since that will make it much easier for all iPhone owners to use their devices abroad, and to resell the smartphone when the time comes to upgrade.

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Bloomberg’s sources are light on details, but the smaller, cheaper iPhone is said to be about 30 percent smaller than the iPhone 4, and is on track for a mid-2011 release, though that timeline could be “delayed or scrapped.” The source apparently got eyes on the new device sometime last year, which uses technology found in the current iPhone to keep costs down. If and when such a smaller iPhone model hits the market, those components will be older and cheaper than those used in the construction of Apple’s iPhone 4 successor. Using older components will help Apple offer the device for the low price of around $200 off-contract, which could pave the way for carriers to offer the alternate iPhone for free with contract subsidies.

Separate unnamed individuals talking to Bloomberg revealed that Apple is also working on a dual-mode iPhone that would be able to work with both GSM (like that used by AT&T) and CDMA (like the one used by Verizon) networks. As we suggested, network cross-compatibility would be made even easier thanks to the presence of a universal, built-in SIM, and updated iPhone software that would allow customers to switch networks and configure devices to work on those networks themselves, without the need for Apple or carrier staff assistance. Whether this tech would make it into the small, cheap iPhone models isn’t known.

While this isn’t the first time rumors of a “mini” or smaller iPhone have circulated, it is the first time it’s happened since the rise of Google’s Android mobile operating system, which is challenging Apple’s footing in the smartphone market. If Apple can do a cheap phone well, it’ll do a lot to help counter Android’s recent gains, some of which are coming from low-priced handsets as inexpensive as $149 without subsidy.

The Bloomberg report also has a lot of the hallmarks of an intentional leak. It’s written by two authors, doesn’t reveal anything too specific, and even builds in easy deniability (suggesting that the release could be delayed or cancelled entirely). I’d argue that it’s almost a certainty Apple’s working on such a device, and that this is an intentional float to gauge public interest. If that’s indeed the case, color me interested.

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