The cyber world is agog with talk that Apple, the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker, would launch its latest version of the iconic smartphone, the iPhone5.

Expectations are riding high as the iPhone has been the top-selling smartphone since it was first launched in 2007. More importantly, every new version of the phone has outsold the previous one. Even though version 5 is expected to be launched in the US and a number of European countries on Wednesday, it would take another 2-3 months for it to debut in India, say traders.

“There is a high degree of anticipation around the launch, and many of us are expecting Apple to sell about 2-3 million during the first couple of days of the launch itself. There is bound to be bulk booking in the North American region and Europe, typically because of bundling by some operators,” Abhishek Chauhan, Senior Consultant, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan (South Asia & Middle East), told Business Line .

“A lot is riding on the success of the latest iPhone, and there’s no doubt that the new iPhone will indeed be successful. However, the degree of success depends on the uptake of the product,” he said. According to various blogs and Web sites, the new iPhone would have a larger screen, support Near Field Communication (technologies such as Bluetooth), a faster processor and a better camera.

“The most important feature would be an updated Siri (voice search), a new and powerful processor, probably a 1 GB random access memory (RAM), and a bigger camera among others are expected,” Rudradeep Biswas, an avid blogger for many telecom Web sites, said.

Analysts in Mumbai are expecting iPhone5 to be the best-selling smartphone of all time, and prices are expected to be in the range of about Rs 45,000. However, industry watchers believe this time there wouldn’t be an 8 GB version.

The iPhone5 is expected to be rolled out in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB.

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