I've owned every iPhone except for the current 5. That's only because I moved to Italy and I don't want to pay $1100 for the latest top-of-the-line (that's the price in Italy for the 64 GB iPhone 5). I was going to wait until June when I return to the United States for a month.
Anyway, I got used to buying a new iPhone every June, until the 4S. This article doesn't say the phone is coming out in January, but maybe June instead of September. That's just like the iPad 4 versus the 3. If Apple has new innovations to put into their products, why not bring them to market sooner?
No one is putting a gun to your head to buy these products! When you buy any product, you make a decision that the product is worth more than your money. You want it, now! There'll always be a better phone down the road. So you either choose to wait forever, or you buy the current top-of-the-line.