Apple iPhone 4
Apple's iPhone 4. Apple

Apple’s iPhone 5 is one of the most anticipated smartphones of the year. Expectations are gaining momentum and rumors are running rampant as the rumored launch date of the flagship Apple phone nears.

The new device will be powered by iOS 5 and is rumored to arrive with an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash and an edge-to-edge display. Apple reportedly has ordered 90 percent of its 8MP camera sensors from OmniVision.

Here, however, is the list of a few features that the smartphone will not arrive with, although they are necessary.

Many users are expecting an enhanced keyboard with the launch of the new iPhone 5. The current keyboard is decent but doesn’t match up to some uers' expectations as sending a lengthy email still remains an issue.

The iPhone 5 keyboard may look to copy the previous BlackBerry Storm handsets where RIM made use of a keyboard that mixed with the device’s responsive software.

Another area where Apple lacks in comparison with Android-based smartphones is the integration of Flash. This could have arrived as a real game-changer for the iPhone 5. Flash is meant to enhance the Web experience.

The greatest bonus that a Flash player brings is that it is able to animate on top of video renderings. Hence, even when only displaying a video, a Flash player is more supply-concentrated than any video player software. A previous estimation suggested that 95 percent of PCs have it. Adobe, however, claims that 98 percent of the U.S. Web users and 99.3 percent of all Internet desktop users have installed the Flash Player.

Apple has not previously supported the concept of removable batteries, and now it seems iPhone 5 will also be devoid of the feature. Although the iPhone 4 has an amazing battery life, it is still limited. The batteries are also not replaceable. Like every battery ever made, it’s going to lose the ability to hold a charge over time. Users prefer to carry a replaceable smartphone battery rather than charging it time after time. Apple has failed to deliver in that area.

Any phone arriving with 4G technology has to bear the highest component costs compared to any other smartphone coming without it. The iPhone 5 has very less chances of being 4G LTE compatible. According to industry researcher IHS, 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless chips that are required for the faster speeds in Thunderbolt cost an extra $39.75. iPhone's minute printed circuit board (PCB) will have to increase in size in order to support the first-generation LTE baseband processor as well as all the supporting chipset. This, however, is in clear contrast to Apple’s plans to deliver a lighter and thinner smartphone.

Apple still needs to put in effort in order to deliver louder speakers. This is, without a doubt, one of the weakest areas of an iPhone. The bigger the speakers are, the more effective they will be in moving air and creating sound. Apple has always paid more attention to style and design rather than anything else, and it is likely that the new device will also have a weak speaker owing to the company’s focus on design.

Apple users are devoid of the option of using external storage compared to other Android-based smartphones in the market. None of the previously released iPhones have featured removable storage, and is probably by design as it helps validate a higher priced model with more memory. The memory card price, however, is falling and Apple could really make use of that fact to compete with other in the smartphone market.

The iOS, previously, has also shown weakness and its inability when you try to download a number of emails that are your priority. Neither can you send a ‘priority’ marked email, nor delete a lot of mails at a time. Business users will think twice about obtaining an iPhone 5 and RIM’s BlackBerry will still remain their favorite option in this regard.

OTA (Over-The-Air) updates have become an increasingly important feature as new updates and services come on stream. This has gained importance as mobile phones accumulate new applications and become more advanced every day. The updates are sent out by the carrier and the Internet is needed to receive them. Apple, however, may not introduce such a feature as of now. Presently, Android devices are updated via OTA method.