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wowman (82)iPhone 4S/5 Distinctions; 4S This Fall, LTE iPhone 5 in 2012?
Posted by CharlesMoore on Sunday Sep 25, 2011 Under iPhone 4, iPhone 5 PredictionsConfused about distinctions differentiating the rumored iPhone 4S from the iPhone 5? Cult of Mac’s Buster Heine endeavors to shed some light on the conundrum, noting that while the next iPhone will be the product’s 5th generation version, that doesn’t necessarily mean its name will be “iPhone 5,” observing that the iPhone 4 has thus far been the only iPhone model with a name that matched its slot on the iPhone generational timeline.
Heine points out that the second generation got tagged iPhone 3G in recognition of its 3G wireless network support, while with the third generation, the iPhone (form factor carried over from the 2nd-gen 3G) got designated 3GS – the “S” signifying “speed” provided by a faster CPU, more RAM, and a camera upgrade.
Mindful of that precedent, Heine deduces that Apple will either stick with a sequential naming convention, a decision that would likely accompany a substantial form factor redesign, or alternatively go the same route they did with the iPhone 3GS if the 5th-gen Apple phone is more a speed bump and feature enhancement encased in a carried-over iPhone 4 form factor, in which case (no pun intended) iPhone 4S would be more logical and likely nomenclature.
So what to expect? Currently either way is speculation, with duelling and often contradictory rumors and purported insider intelligence duking it out in the blogosphere. Heine thinks that if the new iPhone arrives with an A5 processor, an aluminum back, larger screen, a capacitive home button, a thinner, tapered form factor and a higher-resolution camera, think “iPhone5.” Conversely, if the upgrade consists mainly of a dual-core A5 processor, plus a camera upgrade and redesigned antenna, and “world phone” GSM/ CDMA ambidexterity “iPhone 4S” is a stronger probability.
So which will it be?
Heine thinks that for a time there was reason to deduce that Apple’s original intent was to make it “both” rather than “either/or,” with a redesigned iPhone 5 in the vanguard and an iPhone 4S filling the slot currently occupied by the iPhone 3GS. However, he says that the latest scuttlebutt about iPhone 5 production startup hiccups and delays is inclining him more to the school of thought that favors the scenario of the Fall 2011 iPhone release not featuring a form factor redesign. He allows that while the latter should not yet be entirely ruled-out, and an iPhone unveiled next month that looks different than the iPhone 4, it’s looking more and more improbable, and even if the appearance stays largely the same, Apple could still make a marketing decision to call it iPhone 5 based on it’s being the fifth generation (and also perhaps in recognition of iOS 5 being released concurrently.
However, he hedges that Apple could also go with “4S” on a redesigned enclosure product, so its still an imponderable, and the only think that we know for sure is that Apple has done spectacular job of keeping us in the dark.
Looking a bit farther into the future Tiernan Ray of Barrons’ Tech Trader Daily cites Wedbush Securities analyst Scott Sutherland predicting continued Apple dominance in connected devices and the release of two iphone models; an iPhone 4S sometime in the next few weeks and the a top-of-the-line iPhone 5 as replacement for the iPhone 4 plus a lower-priced model targeting emerging markets to come in January with LTE (4G) support and CDMA/GSM world phone connetivity.
Finally for blog entry, Appleinsider’s Kasper Jade reports that Apple is denying requests for employee vacations that would fall from from October 9th through 12th and October 14th through 15th. Jade projects a scenario shaping up with Apple first announcing its fifth-generation iPhone plans on October 4th, then releasing iOS 5 on Monday, October 10, and the Gen-5 iPhone availability starting October 15. Jade cites precedent for this sort of staged release in Apple’s first releasing iOS 4.0 on June 21 last year, then the iPhone 4 on June 24. and in 2009 releasing iOS 3.0 (AKA iPhone Software 3.0) on June 17 and the iPhone 3GS on June 21.
September 25th, 2011 at 2:03 am
Fingers crossed for a total redesign!!!
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September 25th, 2011 at 3:45 am
What if Apple comes out with the ‘redesign’ iPhone 5 now , and very early 2012 something like a iPhone 5s that has 4G LTE etc…
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September 25th, 2011 at 3:46 am
Here is how I hope things will go on October 4th:
Tim Cook steps on stage to announce the new iPhone 4+. It will be apples new midrange/ prepaid phone. It is ready to ship to stores and will retail for $99 with a contract or $229 without a contract. It is the same as the iPhone 4 but it will have the new A5 chip and a better camera. This is the first apple phone to be a world phone and the first to be carried by every major network. The current iPhone 4 will be dicontinued and will now be free with a contract until stock runs out.
One more thing: Steve Jobs comes on stage for the last time. He announces the all new iPhone 5 (or iPhone pro) with a revolutionary new hardware feature, a 4″ screen, A6, an 8mp camera, a new design and 4G. The iPhone 5 will retail for $200 with a contract or $600 without a contract. It will be available in November. Due to manufacturing problems the iPhone 5 will be in short supply the first few months.
A man can only wish right?
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September 25th, 2011 at 5:27 am
@JustinQ I love where your head’s at buddy
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September 25th, 2011 at 5:33 am
I’m really not liking the idea that I can’t get my iPhone at an AT&T store until mid-October. However, I can pre-order on the day its announced and hope that they don’t run out of stock before I even get on the site… Is that how it worked the others years? I can pre-order on their site the day it’s announced? And thanks for the blog post Charles.
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September 25th, 2011 at 7:22 am
this whole thing has been bad enough… I don’t think they’re going to release a better phone in January. Its now, short supply and all, or next cycle…. albeit, it could be back to Summer release…
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September 25th, 2011 at 7:26 am
[...] Be MobileLatest Indication of iPhone 5 Release Date: Clues Add UpOnly KentChristian Post -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog)all 48 news [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 8:38 am
JustinQ, that sounds like the perfect scenario to me, too!
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September 25th, 2011 at 9:15 am
Has to be new form factor to go with iOS5, or two phones. I just don’t see it working any other way. Maybe wishful thinking, but I really don’t. They will get hammered in the marketing any other way. Handset makers and any carrier sans iPhone will have a field day. With a new handset and a couple truly unique features, Apple could put some serious distance between themselves and the next in line.
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September 25th, 2011 at 10:52 am
If he thinks the next iPhone will be released the 15th, why would Apple only prevent employee vacations through the 15th? I know that people will have questions about iOS 5 but wouldn’t they need every employee they can muster right after the release of a new phone?
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September 25th, 2011 at 11:38 am
will the next iphone be able to support 3g facetime instead of wifi?
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September 25th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Fred it has too, if not that might also be another thing why apple losses customers. However, I think everyone has gotten used to FaceTime over wi-fi and I’m sure if you looked you could find an app that works like factime that works on 3G. For instance, skype.
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September 25th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
The one thing I think we can be sure of and thats the next iPhone will be called the iPhone 5 anything else would sound like some cheap upgrade of the iPhone 4 rather than something special especially if they keep the iPhone 4 as an entry level phone.
The iPhone 3G was not just a matter of putting a letter on the end it was describing the fact that this phone unlike previous generations was 3G…. logical and everybody understood the reason for it.
The 3GS that neither sounded like something new and exciting nor did it look any different from the lower priced 3G.
The iPhone 5 is the first generation of phone where Apple have serious competition before it was just Blackberry and iPhone, both of which were different products aimed at different people.
Today there is Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Microsoft etc all have very good phones on the market many of them superior to the iPhone 4 and Apple has already lost a large part of its market share to android and so it needs to be something special in both looks and name.
So anything but iPhone 5 will be a marketing mistake.
I think also as this is the first generation of phones in a market with lots of competition then Apple also need to offer something that looks different and exciting to make people want to buy iPhone rather than something like the Galaxy S2 with its huge screen and lots of features.
The iPhone 4 design just doesn’t have what it takes to compete especially considering if Apple follow with tradition the memory of the iPhone 4 will be reduced to 8GB.
I don’t see any evidence to suggest that its going to be some kind of 4S but all the logic based on Apple tradition and the business side of things says newly designed iPhone 5.
The only evidence we have for a 4S is individual theories.
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September 25th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
If there is any iteration of an iPhone coming soon, Apple wont release a new one for at least a year or more. It doesn’t make much sense for Apple to release one earlier because so many people will buy the 4s/4Gs/4+/5. If Apple did that they would piss off millions of people.
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September 25th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
I’m guessing all the “iphone 5 production problems” reports originated from the Digitimes article a few days ago.
First of all, Digitimes is unreliable at best and gets it wrong half the time. Also, even if the rumor is true the article states that “some” touch panels produced by Wintek have been defective. Wintek supplies only 20%-25% of iphone 5 touch panels, with two other vendors producing the rest.
In other words, a fraction of panels are defective from a company who only makes a small fraction of the total panels for the iphone 5.
Even if the rumor is true, it would not mean that the iphone 5 is delayed until 2012, just that there will be 10%-15% less initial inventory than Apple had hoped for at launch.
These analysts who claim its “looking more and more unlikely” we will see the iphone 5 in 2011 are are basing this statement on nothing but speculation.
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September 25th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Little sense is being made by Mr. Heine and Mr. Ray as far as nomenclature goes. First, the whole “4S vs. 5″ conundrum is fully based on the premise that “4S” and “5″ are the only possible choices that Apple has to name the fifth-generation iPhone, which is just not the case. Is there absolutely any empirical evidence pointing to those two being the only two names Apple is considering? What is wrong with thinking outside the box?
And second (Mr. Ray), why on Earth would Apple name its sixth-generation phone “iPhone 5″? If Apple releases its fifth-generation iPhone in October (and let’s say they call it iPhone Slim or iPhone Pro or iPhone 4X or iPhone 4GS or iPhone Global or something that isn’t iPhone 5), what makes us think that they would, then, save “iPhone 5″ for the sixth-generation phone, instead of calling it what it is, meaning iPhone 6? That’s like saying that Apple even toyed with the notion of naming the iPhone 4 “iPhone 2″ or “iPhone 3″, just because it had skipped those two names in the previous generations.
As far as the possibility of Apple releasing the sixth-generation iPhone within months of releasing its 5th-generation machine, I think if they do that, they would announce both phones on the same date. Otherwise people would feel deeply betrayed and angered. If they do have two phones in mind, it’s probably because they wanted to release them in tandem and they couldn’t because of production problems. And if that’s the case, I just don’t think there’s a reason why they couldn’t say something like “cheap iPhone coming up in a month, fancy iPhone coming up in four.”
And, for the record, Michael, this isn’t a beer-induced rant
more like an “I’m a bit hungover so I have nothing else to do but sit here b*tching about analysts’ analyses” rant.
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September 25th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
[...] Business TimesAll signs point to iPhone 5 second week of OctoberAppoliciousTechie Insider -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog) -Online Social Mediaall 57 news articles » Post Popularity 0% // [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
@andres, I agree with you completely that if the next iphone is not called “iphone 5″, then there will never be an “iphone 5″ because the next one will be “iphone 6″ or whatever name they come up with.
On a side note… there are a lot of people that I’ve spoken to (in Canada) that think the iphone 3G was the first iphone (because it was the first one available in Canada)… so maybe Apple should stick with the name being the generation number for now, a la iphone 4.
I think people will be really confused if the iphone 6 comes out being called iphone 4G (assuming 4G is ready then), but hey, I guess Apple knows what they’re doing. haha.
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September 25th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Andres: ha ha! Well, your intellect seems intact in both drunken and sober states — we just get different tones in your comments depending on what your blood alcohol level is.
I consider you to be the blog’s preeminent mind when it comes to iPhone nomenclature and taxonomy, and so I like your thinking on this. One thing is for sure: if Apple chooses not to use “iPhone 5,” is will throw the rumor mill into a tizzy. “iPhone 5″ has been the working title for the next iPhone, but if this one turns out to be something with a “4″ in it, what working title will the media adopt? You may be right that “iPhone 6″ would be the logical choice, but it’s harder to assume that in your writing if you’re the media. And it isn’t like apple will let us know ahead of time.
I was not a part of “the tech media” back when the 3G came out. Does anyone remember if the tech media referred to it as the “iPhone 2″ prior to its release?
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September 25th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
[...] Business TimesAll signs point to iPhone 5 second week of OctoberAppoliciousTechie Insider -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog) -Online Social Mediaall 58 news articles » Post Popularity 0% // [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Michael—Thanks! I’m flattered by your comments
and you’re right, when you’re in the media you can’t make assumptions the way I could, for example, being just an anonymous observer.
I assume it was a lot harder for the media to make assumptions about the name of the then upcoming iPhones all the way up to the iPhone 4. Why? Because it would have been hard to tell if, for example, the iPhone 3G and 3GS were the iPhone 2.0 and 3.0 (using software nomenclature), or if they were, say, the iPhone 1.1 and 1.2 respectively. Being in that position, you really couldn’t have made the assumption that the next iPhone was considered to be the iPhone 4.0—it may have well been 1.3 or even 2.0. So, for all we knew back then, it was perfectly reasonable to speculate on an “iPhone 2″ coming out, or even “3GX” or something like that, besides “iPhone 4″ (same with the 3G and 3GS).
What complicates our current situation most and helps Tiernan Ray’s “iPhone 4S + iPhone 5″ scenario (as opposed to my iPhone 4S + iPhone 6 one) is that, if I am correct and Apple was indeed planning to launch the two phones in tandem, then it would be incorrect to say that they are fifth- and sixth- generation iPhones. You can’t launch two generations on the same date, and I wouldn’t consider them to be two distinct generations even if the higher-end one ran into production trouble and was launched two or three months later.
In any case, if Apple does indeed plan to launch two phones within the next six months (regardless of whether you consider them to be 4th and 5th, or 5th and 6th, or 14th and 821st generations), I think the right thing to do for them is to announce them on the same date, so that people can make a decision as to whether they should buy the one that’s coming out the soonest (and at the lower price) or wait for the higher-end one to come out. I would personally feel betrayed and really really angered if they released an iPhone 4S, I bought it, and within months they announced an iPhone 5/6. Wouldn’t that just be the worst thing ever?
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September 25th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
[...] debut at Apple HQ on Oct. 4Bizjournals.comOnline Social Media -Manila Standard Today -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog)all 60 news articles » Post Popularity 0% // [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
[...] Business TimesAll signs point to iPhone 5 second week of OctoberAppoliciousTechie Insider -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog) -Online Social Mediaall 60 news articles » Post Popularity 0% // [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
It would, Andres. And I personally don’t believe they’ll do that, because ultimately it would undercut THEIR own product. Early adopters like you and me would be angry, because we invested in the 4S. But most people wait 3-6 months before buying a new product, and for them, they would just go for the “iPhone 5″ and skip over the 4S. I don’t think Apple would do this.
Do you remember the incredibly strange rumor that the iPhone 5 was going to be accompanied by an iPad 3, less than 9 months after the iPad 2 release? You’ll notice that that rumor has evaporated, and I think it’s because people realize it makes no sense. Why would Apple undercut its own iPad 2 sales with an iPad 3? They wouldn’t.
This thinking is also on my mind with a co-released iPhone 4S and 5. The question at the end of the day is this: does an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 5 really help Apple sell more iPhones at the end of the day? Is there some segment ofd the population that wouldn’t have bought an iPhone 4 or 5, but will instead buy the iPhone 4S? I think not. I know that some people feel like three iPhone models somehow lets Apple compete with the multiplicity of Android phones, but to me its Apples and oranges (pun). Because the 4S doesn’t really fulfill any need in the marketplace, that move makes little sense to me.
There’s only one way it would make sense: if this “third iPhone” is actually the stripped down iPhone 4 for Asia/the developing world. Maybe that’s what people like my own source are seeing: not an iPhone 4S, but rather a dumbed-down, el cheap-o iPhone 4 that China Mobile will sell. (And the iPhone 5 will indeed be an overhaul.) But that’s just me riffing on it a bit.
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September 25th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Most probably the iPhone 5 or some fancy new name like iPhone pro ( it wont have 4 or any letters in the name ) but the new phone will probably look very different to the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 6 will be minor upgrades.
They want to give the market something new now make iPhone competitive with the brands like Galaxy and the iPhone 6 will stick with the same form factor as the 5 but with some upgrades.
When the iPhone 5 comes out the iPhone 4 will be reduced in price, have its memory reduced to 8GB probably they will phase out the white iPhone the way they did to the 3GS when the iPhone 4 came out.
They will certainly not bring out two new phones to compete with each other stealing business from themselves by spending money designing two phones one supposed to be cheaper than the other.
I think long term unless they can come up with a revolutionary design Apple will probably stick with the same physical design of a phone for two generations and just upgrade the guts of the thing although they will probably drop the idea of sticking letters on the end because that sounds cheap.
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September 25th, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Michael
We will get an iPhone 5, calling it anything else sounds cheap and the iPhone 4 will be dumbed down just same way they have done with all previous generations of iPhones.
There will not be three phones because it would be totally illogical from a business point of view.
It cost millions to design each phone be it an iPhone 5 or a 4S and where is the logic of Apple spending twice as much to develop two new phones with both the low budget 4S and the original 4 competing with the premium iPhone 5?
Much more logical to develop one new phone take the already existing iPhone 4 dumb it down so its production cost are reduced further and then make it just a little bit cheaper but not so much cheaper that it will be preferable to the iPhone 5.
Apple are not Microsoft, they don’t do cheap so there is something for everybody, it was an attempt to do that in the 90s that nearly bankrupted the company.
They have fewer but more expensive products which in most cases are better than the opposition.
Some of these so called experts who think they know it all don’t consider the business point of view when making their theories and at the end of the day Apple make these products to make money not out of love.
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September 25th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
[...] Business TimesAll signs point to iPhone 5 second week of OctoberAppoliciousTechie Insider -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog) -Online Social Mediaall 61 news articles » Post Popularity 0% // [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
[...] Business TimesAll signs point to iPhone 5 second week of OctoberAppoliciousTechie Insider -The iPhone 5 News Blog (blog) -Online Social Mediaall 65 news articles » Post Popularity 0% // [...]
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September 25th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
You speak the truth, Michael. I never thought about it that way, but as you put it, there really isn’t a place in the market for an iPhone 4S.
Another option, though, is that they want to discontinue the iPhone 4 outright and replace it with an iPhone 4S, so that there are still only two iPhones on the market. In order to make a halfway intelligent analysis as to whether this would behoove Apple or not, however, I would need to know the exact number of previous-gen iPhones that Apple has historically sold (that is, how many three-gees they sold after the 3GS came out, or how many 3GSs they sold after the 4 came out, and so on). Maybe these numbers are not that impressive and Apple has decided that in order to be competitive in the low-end segment of the market, they need to release dedicated, brand-new new models for such segment as opposed to just recycling the previous-generation high-end model, so that people don’t hesitate to buy them because they don’t want to buy last year’s product. In this sense, then, people who would hypothetically want to get a $99 iPhone but don’t want to get the iPhone 4 because they are not cool anymore, would probably be more likely to buy a $99 iPhone 4S, because at least it hasn’t been around for a year and a half, so it’s “in,” at least partially. Again, I don’t know how well the “low-end” iPhone usually does and how much Apple would be willing to improve their situation there, so I don’t know how much sense this makes.
Another scenario in which releasing the 4S AND the 5 would make sense is if, for example, they came up with a really awesome new technology or OS feature, which happens to be incompatible with the iPhone 4, but Apple feels like it should be available on both the low-end and the high-end iPhone, therefore making it necessary to completely phase out the iPhone 4. This is extremely unlikely, however, because we already now what iOS5 looks like, and not only that, but they have even made it compatible with the iPhone 3GS, so it looks like they’re anything but willing to part with the current models.
Alas, it’s looking more and more likely that all we’ll see this year will be an iPhone 4S (or whatever creative name Apple comes up with). I seriously hope that Apple surprises us with something and makes us all look like fools for giving such credibility to the 4S rumors. And the beautiful thing is, it’s still possible for that to happen. You really have to give it to Cupertino: the fact that at this point in time we know so little about the next iPhone, despite the fact that the world’s eyes are on them, really says something about how careful they are.
And yeah, I remember the short-lived iPad 3 rumor. Even though I had a personal interest in that rumor, I’m ultimately glad no one’s talking about the iPad 3 anymore because some people would have been f*cked over big time. I haven’t personally bought an iPad yet because I’m waiting for it to have an HD screen (widescreen as well, please), but I’m a patient man.
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September 25th, 2011 at 11:42 pm
My theory revolves around the idea that the next set up iPhone(s) will be 4G LTE equipped. iPhone 4(G)S is just an iPhone 4 with world phone capability, 8GB memory, and MAYBE 4G LTE while the iPhone 5 is fully 4G LTE and all the fun things we want. Not to give any credibility to the iPad 3 rumors that I don’t believe in the slightest, but in such a scenario I don’t believe one could overlook the idea of an iPad2S (Oh God, another damn name!), with 4G. The 4S or whatever does make complete sense to me because they want to produce their cheap phone as cheaply as possible, and if they have to produce 2 phones for each different kind of network, there is almost certainly profit to be made in-between there.
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September 26th, 2011 at 10:12 am
andres
Why would Apple suddenly release two new iPhones if they have never done that before in the entire history of the iPhone.
When the 3GS came out the iPhone 3 got a memory downgrade and was reduced in price.
When the iPhone 4 came out the 3GS got a memory downgrade and was reduced in price
Bringing out two new phones is not only not how Apple has done things in the past but it would actually harm Apple economically.
Each new phone 4S or 5 costs millions of dollars to design so if Apple released two new phones it would be twice as much in development cost and at the same time they would be spending all this extra money so they could compete with another iPhone which makes no sense so in the end it means fewer sales of both phones.
Doing things the traditional way Apple only has to spend money developing one new phone and the previous generation of phone which they have already recouped the development cost on gets a memory downgrade which reduces production cost and it gets a price cut although not so low that it becomes preferable to the new model.
Remember at the end of the day the only thing that is of any interest to Apple is $$$$$ and if they want maximum profit it means spend as little as possible and the best way to do that is only offer one new phone a year.
The new phone will also have to be called an iPhone 5 because calling it 4S or anything that involves the number 4 would be a marketing disaster and look like its just a cheap upgrade of the iPhone 4 and if people think all Apple is offering is a cheap upgrade they will go with a superior Samsung or something like that and desert Apple.
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September 26th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Shane
Forget the iPad 2S idea.
The iPad 2 will probably be around till about March / April 2012 when it will be phased out and replaced with the iPad 3 like they did with the original when they released the 2.
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September 26th, 2011 at 10:19 am
The iPhone 4S rumor always seemed like bupkis to me, Andres. It always seemed like a cynical by-product of the iPhone 5 rumor mill. It wasn’t until I started hearing that people were seeing iPhone 4-esque pphones being made that it started to look like more of a reality.
One other possibility (and I’ve said this before), is that the new iPhone that people are seeing that look like the iPhone 4 is really just an iPhone 4 that is being manufactured for China. That was a rumor early on, if you remember.
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September 26th, 2011 at 10:23 am
Your ideas on the strangeness of the two iPhone release makes sense to me, Brett. I guess Andres could be on to something in that they intend to phase out both the 3Gs and 4 and replace them with the 4S, but it’s hard to imagine that that would be profitable to do, especially considering that iOS 5 seems to run nicely on the 4. Yeah, the whole two-release thing is still strange to me.
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September 26th, 2011 at 10:31 am
Brett, you’re arguments are correct, however you are forgetting one EXTREMELY important factor. Productive efficiency. Keep it mind we are now looking at an Apple run by Tim Cook, a production genius. Currently they are producing 2 iPhone 4′s. One for GSN, and the other, for CDMA networks. If they were producing only one phone, production costs would be less. Now once the iPhone 5 comes out, the iPhone 4 will presumably become the $100, 8GB model. So then, the phone that costs less, they are now producing for more. There’s a lot less room for profit so the production of it needs to be a streamlined and cheap as possible. Enter the 4S. A world phone with maybe an A5 chip, 8MP camera, and possibly 4G. Such a phone would not cost that much to design again, and would easily be made up by the increased productive efficiency.
As far as looking at the history of the iPhone, well that’s really only 3-4 years. Very little history to actually go on.
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September 26th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
“Why would Apple suddenly release two new iPhones if they have never done that before in the entire history of the iPhone.”
That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I wasn’t saying that it’s going to happen—I was just trying to see if we could make sense of the rumors that there will be two iPhones (which have grown in number lately).
And Michael, that’s what always bothered me about the whole 4S idea. Nothing, absolutely nothing, other than speculation based on more speculation, has ever pointed to Apple even conceiving the idea of naming their next iPhone “iPhone 4S.” Like I said, form factor does not in any way support any theories as to what the phone will be named. But the name stuck and now people seem to think that only “iPhone 4S” and “iPhone 5″ are possible. On the other hand, saying “iPhone 4S” and “iPhone 5″ is a lot more convenient than using the possibly more correct terms, “iPhone 4–based iPhone 5″ or “non–iPhone 4–based iPhone 5.” That’d be just a complete mess and it wouldn’t serve anything but the pedantic demands of people like me
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