The reason why iPhone 5 is delayed?

There is no delay.

There is no iPhone 5.

There is no new design.

There was never going to be one.

The iPhone 4S is the iPhone 5.

This is as simple as I can possibly make it, and yet you still refuse to understand.

There will never be an iPhone nano.

+1

EVERY new design you saw was speculation/rumor/hope/boredom/excitement.
NONE of them came from Apple, Apple NEVER suggested there would be an all-new phone.

In fact, what they DID release happens to match their track record of upgrades pretty much exactly. (excepting the 16 months rather than 12 months between models.)

I am beginning to think that Apple is going into a pattern of a "refresh" of an iPhone a year after the new model's introduction and a completely new model on the second year after the prior one's release.

This would be very much like Nikon's pattern of a midlife refresh for their Pro bodies (e.g. D3 & D3s prior to the expected release of the D4, except their cycle is 2 years for the mid-life refresh and 4 years for the new model.)

To me, this makes sense as Apple is able to keep the device up-to-date in many respects and the cycle is long enough for major changes in production processes and such to occur and be mature which makes supply and pricing a greater certainty than trying to introduce various chipsets that are on "the bleeding edge".

AT&T is very careful to point out that actual download speeds of HPSA + is equal to or greater than that of the "4G LTE" handset/networks at the present time.

Although AT&T has deployed 4G LTE in at least 12 major markets this year (and advertises it heavily) the present 4G LTE chips Apple would have had to employ were reported to be both power hungry and probably not available in sufficient quantities to meet their requirements at the present time.

If this patter is accurate, the next iPhone release should be late summer or early fall of 2012.

As I am considering upgrading to an iPhone 4S, I would appreciate any comments explaining explaining why there would be an iPhone 5 (or whatever) released in Spring 2012. That just doesn't seem to me as fitting Apple's marketing plan.

Thoughts?

TIA

Part of at least one rumor involved a lower priced iPhone. One might even call it an entry level iPhone. The purpose of this would be to head off some of the Android sales to younger people who were selecting an Android phone based largely upon price or their parents who might well have an iPhone, but were not going to spring for an iPhone for thier kid(s) because of the price (and perhaps because of the concern that the phone might not get the best of care...AppleCare + certainly helps in that regard.

It seems to me that the iPhone 3GS for $50 is likely to be Apple's answer to that concern.

As far as a "Nano" (small sized) iPhone goes, just how small can a phone get and still be useful? If anything, users want a slightly larger screen, not a Dick Tracy wrist radio.

Cheers

He wants a physically smaller one. That's insane.


It's already free. We're covered.

On top of that this is actually a major upgrade of the IPhone 4 relative to what happened with the 3G to 3GS move.

As to the extra long stretch between models I see two possibilities. One is an issue of software development which is no surprise at all since they indicated when iOS 5 was coming at WWDC. The other possibility is that they wanted a process shrink of the A5. That is pure speculation but might have been a requirement power wise. I can't wait for a tear down.

Think of all the money and waste they are saving. They still have the 3GS in production, probably on tooling paid for a long time ago. If you look at The Mini or any of the Macs for that matter they try to get some longevity out of cases. This on products that have significant reason to look good.

Cell phones don't ave a reason to look good. Especially in the case of an iPhone which is a slab almost always encased in rubber. Honestly what could Apple bring to iPhone by redesigning the case for no reason.

It also means you keep making money off old tooling. Think about it, how many manufactures produce and sell successfully three year old cell phones.

However I suspect that you mis one thing iPhones have been bleeding edge as far as chips go. Neither the A4 nor the A5 are anything to sneeze at.

There will be an IPhone 5 when the chips are ready not before. Rumors in the industry seem to indicate that would be in the second quarter or later. Of course nobody knows for sure and Apple could lock up a chip under contract much like they have with Thunderbolt.

The only way I see a possible iPhone 5 introduction before late summer 2012 is if it gets introduced as an iPhone PRo model. I actually see potential here for a Pro model as it would allow for the introduction of a larger screen model that doesn't compete with the smaller iPhone 4 form factor. It would also be the place to intro LTE.

Yeah one thought, don't worry about it!

Seriously there is much talk about iPhone 4S not being a game changer which is BS. Apple completely changed the game with the first iPhone and the introduction of the SDK. So Apple isn't about to get involved in game changing when they are playing so well now. What they should do is put more players on the field. Thus an iPhone Pro that could come at anytime. Well anytime after the required hardware debuts.

LG Neon fits that bill (not a smatphone though)

Moto RAZR kept the same body style for many years ... My memory isn't that great at this stage, but I'd bet it was more than 3 years!

... So it doesn't happen OFTEN, but when there is a really good design, there is precedent for it sticking around for many years.

If you are a Verizon customer, then I would just either wait for the Motorola droid bionic or get the droid x2 since both phones have a dual core processor, the bionic will have 4g but the x2 doesn't have 4g and 8 megapixel cameras. The droid x2 has one and the bionic will probably have one.

Other than those, then there are no android devices that have what you want. Unless you go to sprint or T-Mobile.

Actually, the iphone 4 is good, but the antenna issue and the fragile infrastructure is a major turnoff dude.

wizard69,

I was not saying that Apple was out of date with the A4/A5 chips and so on, but that is a far cry from "the bleeding edge" where things can be expected to not work right frequently. That simply is not the Apple way. The user experience is everything so Apple wants to use a known item that is at least reasonably mature. Apple is also keenly aware of the price of components and watches that very closely indeed. I saw one article which placed the cost to Apple of the iPhone 4S at $203. We will have to await a full tear down to see if this is accurate though.

The people who are minimizing the improvements in the iPhone 4S plainly wanted a different appearance and are discounting the obvious performance improvement of the A5 dual core processor and the new graphics processor. I like the antenna change because it should improve simultaneous voice and data use (and make it possible with Verizon phones). The new camera lens appears to be a major update quite apart from the addition of face recognition and some changes in image processing...and face recognition. Thom Hogan, the Nikon guru, has long said that what Nikon, Canon, et al need to fear is cell phone cameras which people are using as image capture, processing and upload to the internet devices. This camera should do even better than its predecessors.

I also like the backlit screen. It should be easier to view under a wide variety of circumstances.

The Siri/Virtual Assistant should be quite useful if it works at all well. It is not far removed from Scotty (of Star Trek) saying "Computer, do something or other".

Much of the discussion about a larger screen has involved something around a half inch (on the diagonal) which really would not impact the overall size of the phone much if some of the "surrounds" for the screen were engineered out.

I do not think Apple would be especially well served by a "Pro" model as one of the things Apple have tried to maintain as a matter of corporate policy is a limited number of models.

One benefit of keeping the same form factor this time is that many accessories for the iPhone 4 will work with the iPhone 4S.

If you have looked at the iPhones which the Apple employees at the Apple Stores use, you will notice that it has a battery pack incorporated in the hard case which encloses the iPhone and a scanner. There is also customized software which makes it a point of sale device. (I looked at one and would happily trade the slight extra bulk for the battery pack, although I have a case with a battery which is slimmer than theirs.)

I think the benefit of "thin" in the iPhone is overestimated. As you correctly observe, nearly everyone has a protective case on their phone. Without a case it is all too easy to have an expensive slip that ends with a broken iPhone on the floor.

Cheers