iPhone 5 rumor roundup for week ending May 13

Here are the top iPhone 5 rumors for the week ending Friday, May 13: iPhone 5 "Lite," reading the meaning of iPhone 5 parts, speaking of voice recognition, and Thunderbolt I/O on the iPhone as a sign of the Apocalypse. You heard it all here second.
(More iPhone 5 rumors from the week of May 6.)

A public service warning: iPhone 5 causing spam. iPhone 5 rumor-mongering now is being exploited by spammers. Facebook users who click on a link called "First Exposure: iPhone 5" are being duped into spreading spam, reports CNET’s Elinor Mills, who has the details on the clickjacking exploit.
New "Lite" iPhone 5: The "most convincing clue yet" that Apple is readying a lower-cost, and perhaps smaller iPhone "Lite" model is guess what? The "old"  iPhone 3GS and original iPad are often outselling newer Android rivals.

That’s the odd idea put forward this week by FastCompany’s Kit Eaton. He cites a research note by Michael Walkley, a tech analyst with investment bank Canaccord Genuity, (originally picked up by AppleInsider).
Walkley wrote: "[O]ur April checks indicated continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad 1 at Verizon, as these older generation products with reduced prices often outsold new Android products. We believe this highlights Apple's significant competitive advantage, and these older products help Apple offer a tiered pricing strategy at key channels."
APPLE IPHONEYS: The iPhone 5 edition
Eaton says, reasonably, that Apple may just continue this practice with iPhone 4 when iPhone 5 is eventually released. But then he argues that the success of the lower-priced, older Apple hardware shows that Apple might try to appeal to the same set of cost-conscious buyers with a "Lite" iPhone 5 model -- one that may have a smaller screen, smaller battery, less memory, more plastic.
"These are all tweaks that would significantly reduce the production price without necessarily degrading the user experience…," Eaton claims. "A drop in price like this would let Apple sell an iPhone Lite at a knock-down price…, enabling it to scoop up more of the low-end market that it's partially ceded to Android."
But the high-quality engineering of Apple’s products *is* part of the "user experience." And there doesn’t seem to be much other "evidence" that Apple has any interest in the low-end market, for any of its products.
iPhone 5 parts surface: In case you were wondering what the iPhone 5 speaker and home button might look like, Cult of Mac is all over it. "Is This The Speaker And Home Button Of The iPhone 5?" is the breathless headline.

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