iPhone 5 mock-up with message light.
After taking a large chunk of the Blackberry’s market share, the iPhone may soon also be borrowing one of its most popular features. The iPhone Download Blog is reporting a rumor that the iPhone 5 will be getting an LED message light on its front similar to the Blackberry’s. The light will blink whenever a new message or notification is waiting on the iPhone.
The iPhone Download Blog reports that a reader wrote in to clarify a rumor from the previous week about the iPhone 5 getting dual-LED lights for a brighter camera flash. One of the rare complaints for the iPhone 4’s camera is that the flash is not bright enough to be useful. The source clarified that the second LED light will instead be placed on the iPhone’s front to alert users to new messages and notifications. One of the Blackberry’s most-loved and important features for business users is its message light.
If true, this move could be seen as just another incursion by Apple into Blackberry’s popular text-messaging turf. Last month, Apple introduced its iMessages service that will let iOS devices send free text messages to each other—a feature that is very similar to the Blackberry Messenger service. Many businesses rely on Blackberry Messenger for internal communications. It is also popular among students as a way to avoid exorbitant cellular text-messaging costs.
Recently, shares of Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry, plunged in June when the company announced its Blackberry smartphones were losing share to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.
Apple may have a secondary use for a message light on the front of the phone: to indicate that the video camera is recording. On all Mac laptop and desktop products, a green light glows whenever the video camera is activated to warn users it’s on.
Nice, this feature would be great for the iPhone 5. I’m missing this indicator on my Galaxy SII.