iPhone 5 May Launch Waterproof This Fall

HzO’s director of marketing & sales Rick Peterson has revealed at MWC 2012 that the company has agreements with several other companies to make their upcoming smartphones waterproof. Apple is most likely one of them.

When asked if they were working with Apple on waterproofing future devices, Peterson told Cult of Mac, “We have agreements in place with all of our partners preventing us from talking about upcoming devices.”

Peterson indirectly confirmed that the iPad 3 cannot possibly benefit from the technology, even if Apple had a deal signed with HzO, simply because “it takes at least six months or more from signing a deal with a partner to the release of a device using our technology.”

Peterson added, “No one was even talking about this technology six months ago, so it’s going to take a while for the first phones shipping with HzO to reach market. We hope to see some of them announced this week at Mobile World Congress, and some of these will be shipping later in the year.”

Both HzO and Liquipel at present at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showing off their superhydrophobic technologies that allow virtually any gizmo to be submerged and not get its electronics wet.

Of course, with design variations come different scenarios where some devices are more prone to getting wet than others. But the stuff seems to make wonders for media players like Apple’s iPods, and smartphones like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Apple is likely to refresh its iPhone lineup this year, either in summer at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, or in fall, like the iPhone before it.

According to a “reliable” Asian source talking to Japanese blog Macotakara last week, “[the] next iPhone will be released in September or October.” Apple is reportedly planning to stick to an autumn refresh for every new iPhone starting with the iPhone 4S.

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