Can Apple's worldphone iPhone 5 rival Motorola's Photon?

Apple started selling 'unlocked' version of iPhone 4 in US which has raised expectations that Apple is prepping up the market for the arrival of its worldphone, the iPhone 5.

It has been rumored that iPhone 5 will be a 'worldphone' - both GSM and CDMA compatible. It is conjectured that the phone will have a SIM-less design with 3-4 antennas.

Another rumor suggested that the iPhone 5 will feature a SIM card slot for other countries except US. This will allow users to insert any SIM card in iPhone when traveling abroad.

However, as Apple is delaying the launch of such a world phone, Motorola has seized the opportunity to release its worldphone, the Motorola Photon. Though the phone has been launched on Sprint network, it offers global 4G connectivity and also 3G support. Thus, it can be used on CDMA and WiMAX in US and GSM internationally, just like the unlocked iPhone 4 which can be used with other GSM network providers internationally.

Recently MobileFun reported that Motorola will be launching a SIM-free or unlocked Atrix model in Europe from Aug. 2.

Apple's recently released 'unlocked' iPhone 4 is only GSM-compatible. Thus, users can run the phone only on AT&T and T-Mobile networks in U.S. However, Apple is targeting international travelers with the unlocked phones.

Motorola with Photon will offer stiff competition to iPhone 5 when it arrives in September, at the iPod refresh event. Motorola Photon, like its older cousin Motorola Atrix, brings the virtues of docking to users. Unlike Atrix, it does not have a laptop dock but offers the HDMI dock which transforms the phone into a computer.

Motorola Photon sports a 4.3-inch screen with 960x540 screen resolution. It is powered by the 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core chip and has 1 GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory. Photon runs on Android 2.3 or Gingerbread juice. It weighs 5.6 oz (158 grams) and is 0.5-inch (12.2mm) thick. Photon also sports an 8MP rear-facing and a VGA front facing camera. It offers 720p video capture capacity.

Apple's iPhone 5 is rumored to bring 1080p video playback capacity, as recently some owners who ran iOS 5 on iPad 2 were able to run 1080p videos on its screen. It is also assumed that Apple will fit iPhone 5 with a larger curved screen. The most recent iOS 5 discovery suggests that iPhone 5 will have voice recognition capability, a leak which was affirmed by a report that Apple is in negotiations with Nuance Communications Inc.

Also In the fray is iWallet to counter Google's NFC-enabled mobile payment feature Google Wallet. It was recently confirmed that Apple has signed a deal with OmniVision which will be supplying sensors for iPhone 5 8MP cameras. And iPad 2's A5 dual-core chip will certainly find a place in the next iPhone.

While Apple is educating users about the virtues of unlocked phone to prepare them for a possible worldphone, Motorola is attempting to gain the early mover's advantage with Motorola Photon in the worldphone domain.