Is Apple thinking quad-core next?

The Smartphones are all set for the quad-core processors as it seems from the leaks that we heard towards the end of last year. There was a leak revealing that HTC is to unveil two handsets that will run on quad-core processors and now the latest bit of information refers to Apple.

Earlier we have seen rumors claiming Apple to use A6 processor on their upcoming tablet and handsets, however nothing much is known about other specification. Now according to a report on 9to5Mac, the upcoming iOS 5.1 updates will not support dual-core processing that is enabled by the A5chips, but will support quad core processing.

They have said that, the reference to the quad-core iPhone and iPad chips comes by way of a hidden panel which describes cores that are supported by iOS device hardware. According to some folks familiar with the working of the iOS - the single core device would be limited to ‘/cores/core. 0’ and the dual core devices would come in ‘/cores/core.1’.

Now the iOS 5.1 beta 2 now includes core.3, which seems like a quad-core from Apple according to the labeling method. So we may say that Apple is hard at work in pushing their quad-core devices in 2012.

However, the above information was only referring to a software, capable of supporting the quad-core devices; there is no information or even rumor yet about the intention of Apple to launch handsets or tablets running with a quad-core processor. 

Source(s)