Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tallest Skil 
But the iPhone isn't like the DeLorean. There are dedicated releases where new hardware defines a new generation of product. Didn't we used to call them revisions (like the G5 iMac had Rev A, Rev B (with iSight) and Rev C)? And even if we take the internal numbers, that makes this iPhone "5,1" and the iPhone 4 "3,1". But it was still called "4", because it was their fourth revision/generation.
People never wondered what happened to the iPhone 2. They'd get over it. They got over dropping the iPad increment.
If this phone is internally referred to as the 5.1, then it's clearly a fifth generation model. But it really doesn't matter, and that's one of the points I've been making. Naming is purely a marketing function, somethng I was involved with with my own companies, and in my years in advertising.
Whatever Apple wants to emphasize that year is going to be reflected in the name. Of course a first model is rarely given a number, but the second one often is. But Apple wanted to address the big question of 3G that year, the lack of which was a reason many people, including my family, didn't buy the first model. So they named it the 3G. Nothing to do with he generation of phone, just the feature they wanted people to be aware of.
Why did they name the "4" the "4"? Likely because it was a new phone entirely and people were used to it having 3G.
If this one will be referred to as the "5", and we don't know that yet, after all, that number could refer to five products, then it would likely be because, again, this is an entirely new phone, marked by a completely new case and screen.
If that's Apple's thinking, then "5" makes sense for them.
