The Wall Street Journal
is singing a new tune Wednesday morning, reaffirming parts of an earlier BGR report suggesting that Apple is preparing to release a redesigned iPhone 5 later this year. Citing anonymous sources in Apple’s supply chain, the paper reports this morning that Apple has placed component orders with key suppliers for fifth-generation iPhone parts. As has already been widely reported, Apple’s next iPhone is said to feature an 8-megapixel camera and Qualcomm radios. The report veers away from the consensus in suggesting that Apple’s next iPhone will not share its design with the current iPhone 4, however, and will instead be thinner and lighter than the current model. BGR reported last month that Apple’s next iPhone would feature a “radical new case design” when it launches later this year. Apple reportedly plans to have 25 million next-generation iPhone handsets built in 2011, suggesting the Cupertino-based tech giant might finally come closer to meeting demand. Apple sold a record 18.65 million combined iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS units in its last fiscal quarter.