Strong sales of iPhone 4S a precursor to 'monster' launch of redesigned 'iPhone 5' - Page 3

Starting to think? They've known for quite a while that Apple fans are willing to shell out for the latest, now whether that's stupid or not is purely subjective.

What do you mean by "around in 2-4 years"? Surely people will still be using them but I am certain they will drop the 3GS from their lineup this year with the iPhone 4 8GB free on contract, iPhone 4S 8GB (maybe16GB as new minimum) $99 on contract, and generation 6 iPhone $199, $299, and $399 for the three different capacities.

This also allows for an interesting change in the direct lineup where there will be no 480x320 displays. That might make it a good time to move devs from supporting that 2009 display to supporting that same resolution at a larger size (perhaps even supporting two number models at different sizes), which will be smooth, all things considered.

The one thing I wonder about the iPhone 4 in late 2012 free on contract is if they will keep the IPS panel. They don't use an IPS panel on the iPod Touch despite it being Retina Display so they are not above shaving some costs for those buying old kit.

I am pretty sure that you believed they would drop the 3GS before this year with the release of the iPhone 4S. As did many others. It seems impossible to explain to people that the more models there are across price points the better. Faced with a device which is out-selling all Android competitors you want them to drop it?


That same resolution at a larger size makes no sense. Anyway there is no way that Apple will end the 480x320 model. When the 5 ( or whatever comes out) they may rename it, and even update the chip set. But they will have an entry level model with 480x320 selling for buttons (off contract) to entice people into the ecosystem.

The design will remain the same, at least for some time. This is the way Apple does their other line-ups - Mac Book, Mac Book Pro, Mac Book Air etc.

Different models.

You say that despite Apple's history of operating like a boutique shop with a limited selection that rarely ever exceeds groups of three.

They have the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks. That's two! They don't even have a MacBook line anymore though i think they may bring that back.

They have the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro desktop lines, and the Mac Pro is really a quasi contender here since so clearly a workstation machine. You look at their specific model categories and you have 11" and 13" MBAs; 13", 15" and 17" MBPs; 21" and 27" iMacs. Within those you have two or three options for the CPU. The only get over 4 options when you look at having a HDD or SSD of various sizes.

Apple's philosophy is to keep it simple whenever possible to maximize profit. That's why I think an iPhone 4 with a TN Retina Panel is more likely for 2013 than iPhone 3GS selling on their homepage through 2015.


The iPhone 3GS out-selling all Android competitors is news to me. Source?

「／クゥオテ」Why、ウェンテェyc案じゅst.。。

Oh, whoops

Why in the world would they do that when they can just drop the iPhone 4 to $0 on contract? Then developers would't have to worry about pre-Retina compatibility?

Let's say that they drop the iPhone 4 8 GB to $0.00 on contract. To keep things in perspective, they'd have to PAY users to take a 3GS on contract.

Hmmm. Might make an interesting scenario.

You think so? I think Apple didn't want 'plasticy' laptops anymore, possibly now kill the ODD entirely this year (expect for the MP). Steve made it quite clear why they don't do market research; "No, because customers don't know what they want until we've shown them".

They can screw up, like they did with the removal of FW on the MacBook*. But to bring a discontinued product back? Hmm, I don't think so.

*we did get this 1600+ thread because of that.

http://gigaom.com/2012/01/09/iphone-...ndroid-in-u-s/

Yes, well, duh, Sol was referring to the poster stating that the 3GS alone outsold all Android devices, which of course is not true.

Welp, at least no rounded corners on those icons

I should be more clear. I don't think they will bring back the plastic bodies, but I think there is a market for Apple having multiple sized cheaper metal notebooks that aren't the Air or the Pro.

I think the ODD is going way in the next Pro, but perhaps there will still be a nice big gap for the the ODD to remain in what is today a fairly fat and chunky aluminium chassis to later be called MacBook. (Note: just an example, not something I feel strongly about)

It wouldn't be unprecedented for Apple to do such a thing. Remember the 13" aluminium MacBook they changed to MacBook Pro in the next revision.

I'd rather not to be honest. To look at Island Hermit's list, crystal clear as it is, and then claim that it doesn't support his point it nothing short of idiotic. I don't mean that as a cruel insult, it's simply an inevitable observation.


I think that's a very good shout. I think Apple will be keen to get away from using numbers sooner or later. They simply call their computers 'iMac', 'MacBook Pro' etc. They are referred to as entities rather than date-specific models. That ended with the move to the Intel architecture (no more iMac G4, G5 etc.). I don't think Apple can do that with phones because they are by the nature of the beast upgraded every 2 years and this year's flagship is next year's budget model. People need to be able to differentiate at a glance, at least for now.

iPhone Air is a great brand name, but it doesn't solve the problem long-term. They may well use that in the summer but at some point they'll want to solve the problem. With Macs we have to say 'mid 2010 Macbook Pro'. It's not wonderful but it doesn't matter because you can only ever buy the latest model. The only time I have to refer to my model of MacBook Pro is when I require technical assistance. Phones, which are sold in a maelstrom of marketing and jargon, need a snappy suffix.

Maybe one day when iOS isn't being advanced at such a rapid rate and the previous two models can run the latest version several years into their life-cycles Apple will do away with the suffix and just call the product like 'iPhone'. You choose what spec you want, but they're all 'iPhone'. Just like 'iMac'.


Precisely

But that link says that the 3GS outsold ANY individual Android device in the 4th quarter.

I don't recall anyone saying that it outsold all Android devices together. That would be an insane claim. asdasd said:

I guess you could interpret that either way. In any event, the facts are that the top 3 selling phones in the last quarter were all iPhones so asdasd was either right or wrong, depending on which interpretation he meant.

Well, that certainly is true!

All things considered, it's an amazing thing for one company to hold the first, second and third position.

yeah, they'll pay people with a cheaper contract with the same data plan. Like, you know, outside the US.

Of course I meant it outsold each individual Android devices. That would be the sane interpretation even if it wasn't phrased as clear as it could have been.

While I agree it shouldn't be iPhone5, I'm not convinced it's gonna be iPhone6. You'll just get dummies asking "what happened to the iPhone5?" I think Apple kinda painted themselves into a corner here. They already fixed the naming problem caused by the oddly named 2nd Gen "3G" by calling the 3rd Gen "3GS". So the name and the phone were sync'ed for the 4th. Then they release the "4S". Whatever rationale Apple marketing had for "4S", will probably apply to naming the 6th gen the "5", the 7th gen "5S", the 8th "6", etc.

Or, they'll do what they did with MacOS. The next phone will be iPhone V.0 "Dingo", then iPhone V.1 "Coyote", iPhone V.2 "Timberwolf", etc. ad nauseum.

Hmm... I kinda like that idea. Hey Apple, I'll license this trademark to you for an advance of every new iPhone release.

Ah, ok, thanks.

Personally, I would think that Apple gains more from lowering the price of the air even further. They started at what, 1799? Now look, its 999 and with the assumption of 1.2M sold 'over the holiday buying season', they could 'make it up in volume' if they were to lower the price even further. The competition is already having a hard time offering their versions of unibody laptops, similar shaped and such at this price point. Many people still think Macs are more expensive. Perhaps Apple is able to make it even more clear, simply on price (right now Macs are simply cheaper because they last longer).

Me, I am thinking about buying an Air, even though I have zero need for it, already have an iPhone & iPad, I never work while commuting, always have internet available every time I visit someone and don't even like gloss! Now that's what I call magical! TM

Before the iPhone 4S came out, people, probably you , were making the same argument. Except then it was

Why in the world would they do that [ keep the iPhone 3GS] when they can just drop the iPhone 4 to $99 on contract?

Developers have long solved the retina "problem". Or rather designers have. There is little coding to do.

Here is why you would keep the 3GS.

The sum total of sales of the

1) iPhone 4S
2) iPhone 4
3) iPhone 3Gs

exceed the sum total sales of the

1) iPhone 4S
2) iPhone 4


and similarly the sales of the

1) iPhone 5 ( or - standard disclaimer - whatever it is called)
2) iPhone 4S
3)iPhone 4
4) iPhone 3Gs

will exceed the sales of the

1) iPhone 5
2) iPhone 4S
3) iPhone 4

They didnt do this with the 3G because it was crap. the 3GS is about as speedy in normal use as the iPhone 4.I dont notice the iPhone 4S being much speedier, but benchmarks suggest it is.

In fact there are really three models here - as APple designates models based on the look and feel, and design. The 3 model, the 4 Model and the 5 model.

One with no retina, one with a retina, one with a New Design - and possibly a bigger screen.

The non-retina display, and it's form factor ( which is still awesome), isnt going away. It will be the cheap model for contractless phones. And it isnt relatively , that cheap now. It sells at £100 more than newer low level Anrdroid models. Of course it is a better machine.

Lowering the off contract price to $250 would see it run out the door. In fact I expect the 3GS to over take the sales of the 4 anyway, this year.

Actually, that was Mercury52's list.

This !

I'm thinking of heading into the iMac with my next Mac purchase but I'll wait to see what the next round of MBPs bring us before committing.

It's really surprising to me how much you guys are invested in what Apple names its next iPhone, and the amount of hostility displayed toward anyone who disagrees (I don't mean you, MarquisMark - you're just the post I replied to). I don't think even Apple takes it as seriously as some on this forum.

Now, after criticizing you, I will now render my opinion It will be called the iPhone 5. Period. It's about marketing, not processor generation or phone generation or data transmission standard, or anything else geeks care about. 5 comes after 4, and they already have a 4/4s.

If Apple comes up with a bigger phone I think its going to be 4".

But, if they do one at around 4.5" , they will do this only because they can still offer the 4s which provide a smaller phone choice. In 2013, they will have to produce a new 3.5" phone and also update the bigger one, depending on sales.

And the iPhone is in a much needed diet, it needs to get thinner and lighter to keep it fresh. I am expecting they will move to OLED this year to allow just that. I got a few comments from friends that it looks outdated, not good for a top of the line phone.

XCode? 'Idealize?'

XCode updates are lazy crap put out by Apple. For instance, the move from XCode 3.xx to 4.xx (combined with the transition to Lion and iOS 5 around he same time) has been an unrelenting, time-wasting disaster in terms of backwards-compatibility.

I dread Apple's XCode updates following possible resolution/form factor changes.

Point stands.

It could argued that the 3.5" 3:2 display footprint is what is allowing less engineered competitors to catch up and even overtake* Apple in some areas.

I agree with you on the 4". Reducing thickness and side bezel would still allow for the same all-important thumb sweep.


* Several are cheating by not including the camera hump adding several mm to the box dimensions.

I would seriously be disappointed if they don't keep the 3.5" as I really don't want a bigger phone. What I would like is for the CMOS sensor have the same AR as the screen, one can hope.

Some people have said that there will be an iPhone Lite, but I think you've just filled that gap... the 4 and 4S will fill the iPhone Lite position (possibly updating the 4S in 2013) while the new phone will have a larger screen.

and I am pretty confident they will end the 3GS this year.

It costs a lot less than shelling out for the "latest" Android phone every couple of months.

2 year contract, 2 years with an iPhone works pretty well, I started on a 3G now I'm using a 4, I'll get whatever comes next no matter what it's called.

Do people whine when this years Porsche looks like last years Porsche?

It's the improvements on the inside that count, an unchanging external design gradually becomes iconic.

As far as screen size goes 3.5" is a very good compromise between viewability and comfortable access to the entire screen with one's thumb when using one handed in portrait mode.

Heh, welcome to being a mod. There will be at least several threads on the iPhone 5 per week all the way to its launch.

I might as well begin the countdown now:
9 Months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes to iPhone5 Launch.

There... fixed that for you.

I think 4" is nice. Not too cumbersome while being more appealing.

Uh, why? You have to have a good reason.

No, unlike you, I can count.

It has nothing to do with the generation at this point. It has to do with the fact that Apple has been using the basic body design for two generations of phone, and is naming them that way. The first phone doesn't count of course. The second one was named after the 3G phone service. But the 3GS, with the same body, was named that way because of, as Jobs put it: speed.

Then the next was the 4, with a new body. The next, wasn't the 5, it's the 4S. This follows the previous naming. There is no reason to believe that the next will be called the 6. Apple is clearly not naming the phones after the generation.

I honestly don't know what you're talking about here. Do you know what Apple considers to be their naming policy? I doubt if you do. I don't. But "5" seems to be a better bet than "6". Why would Apple skip a number here. That would be very strange at this point. And for marketing
Unposed alone, anything with a 4 would be out of date. If Apple keeps up with its two generation body designs, then moving to a5 and then a 5S, etc. would make sense.

The iPhone LTE might make sense if Apple is trying to make a big deal about that as they were about 3G. But we'll see. It's not such a big deal that people need to get nuts over it.

Yep. That's exactly why I don't want it.


No one asked, "What happened to the iPhone 2?"


?

Naming a product isn't always directly related to some arbitrary feature. Often, the name is obscure enough so that few people know what it refers to.

I believe, and I'm amazed at some of the venom here about this minor thing, that Apple has established a naming convention, and may want to keep to it. It's as likely as not that the body of the phone may establish that convention. If so, and the new phone has a bigger screen, and thus a new body, it could be named the "5". Most people aren't knowledgable about all of these features we discuss here. To them, the biggest difference would be a new body, and a larger screen. And therefor, Apple might want to go with that, after having named their last four phones in a way that looks, to most people, as having been named after the fact that the body has been kept for two generations.

If that resonated with consumers, then Apple may want to go with it. This is the only place I've seen so far that questions this. Perhaps some of you guys may be right. Maybe it will be called the 6, or maybe the 4x, it maybe the LTE. But none of those follows any scheme. They are almost random. And one thing you learn in advertising, is that consumers hate random. They want something predictable about their products. And I would imagine that if you asked most people, they would think the next phone will be named the 5.