It’s hard to believe it’s only been a few months since Apple officially announced the iPhone 4S, putting to end the months and months of speculation around just what hardware would be revealed, and if we’d see a new design with a larger screen or just the slightly-refreshed iPhone 4 that we ended up getting. The iPhone 4S still has a good, long life ahead of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start looking over the rumors already circulating in regards to Apple’s next iPhone.

An unnamed source, reportedly close to Apple or the iPhone team, claims that the iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple calls its next-generation smartphone) will see some of those design changes we didn’t get this fall. Those include an upgrade to a four-inch screen, and some changes to the construction of the handset’s body. As it stands now, the plan is supposedly to give the phone an aluminum back and make the front bezel out of plastic, letting radio signals pass through.

According to this source, we’re also looking at another fall release for the next iPhone. After Apple didn’t have anything ready to go this summer, the June or July release we’ve seen for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 slid back a few months. Supposedly, Apple’s not interested in getting back on that old schedule, and we’ll be waiting until long into 2012 before we see more iPhone hardware.

Source: BGR