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Why was the iPhone 4S postponed to the fall?

A

anonymous guy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2010
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The redesigned antenna had already been implemented with the CDMA model and the A5 chip was already kicking around with the iPad 2.

With the 4S being more of a minor revision, did they intentionally hold out until the fall just to implement a half baked "game changer" in Siri?

It's kind of disappointing if upgrade cycles get pushed back to the fall just because of that...
 
I think it was more to do with spacing the product lines and iOS updates.
 
Having seen the iPad 3 roll out, I wonder now whether a major reason was to maximise/even out shipping capacity from factories. In June/July last year, they were shipping the updated iMac, MBP and MBA models and in previous years - even before it got so big, iPhone stocks on launch have been limited. Now that iPod is slowing down, they essentially had a huge concentration of shipping needs in the spring/summer time with a huge gap in late summer until the iPad release.

Clearly the large items take up a lot of shipping capacity due to their bulk and, by moving iPhone to autumn, they didn't need to compromise on either roll out. Given Tim Cook's background, its likely that it was his influence as well.

This year's success with the iPad which apparently had the side effect of making scalping less prevalent (or less successful anyway) seems to have vindicated their approach.
 
anonymous guy said:
The redesigned antenna had already been implemented with the CDMA model and the A5 chip was already kicking around with the iPad 2.

With the 4S being more of a minor revision, did they intentionally hold out until the fall just to implement a half baked "game changer" in Siri?

It's kind of disappointing if upgrade cycles get pushed back to the fall just because of that...
Click to expand...

Most likely a business decision to do with the timing of releases etc.
 
I believe that it had to do with the fact that they had just released the Verizon iPhone on February 10. It would really have angered those customers to have a new phone released just 4 months later.
 
anonymous guy said:
The redesigned antenna had already been implemented with the CDMA model and the A5 chip was already kicking around with the iPad 2.

With the 4S being more of a minor revision, did they intentionally hold out until the fall just to implement a half baked "game changer" in Siri?

It's kind of disappointing if upgrade cycles get pushed back to the fall just because of that...
Click to expand...
What an original thread!!

All this as posted back when the 4s came out and it didn't ring true then so it certainly doesn't ring true now.
The 4s was not a minor revision but why let a little think like facts get in the way of a drama filled post.

It's better for apple as a company to have iPhone on a fall release.
 
I don't know, but it really pissed a lot of people off to wait a year and a half for an S model update. I think waiting that late in the year is making a lot of people choose other phones rather than wait a whole year for what may be another huge disappointment. I don't think it's a smart move for Apple.
 
Christmas.

The iPod used to come out in the fall and it was the big holiday shopping item.

If you've looked at iPod sales numbers recently you know how that's not such a big deal anymore. So Apple was left with nothing new and exciting for the holiday shoppers.

Thus, the iPhone was moved to fill that spot.

They could have come out with one phone in June and then updated it again slightly in the fall, but trust me, that would have pissed off FAR more people than they way they ended up doing it.
 
I remember someone here said it was delayed because of the iOS team. Apparently iOS wasn't ready. That or they wanted to move the launch to the fall, and this was the only way to do it. I'm a day 1 iPhone 4 owner, and would really love an iPhone in June but I guess Oct will have to do. :cool:
 
Also, releasing the iPhone 5 (6/The New iPhone/whatever-the-hell-you-wanna call-it) is pretty much Apple sticking their middle finger with a hearty "Screw You!" to anyone who bought an iPhone 4S, like myself.

Fall releases coordinate with the holiday season. The iPhone is an icon into day's world. You can show a bunch a people different HTC models and they might not be able to name them, but they sure can name the iPhone any given day. Why release it in the Summer, when you can do it right around the holiday season and have a mass wave of iPhones and iPads being bought as Suzie and Johnny's christmas gifts?

Previewing iOS at WWDC along with MAYBE a hardware tease keeps interest in what's coming up and helps create anticipation for what we'll get in the Fall.

Also, I'm pretty sure that if the iPhone whatever were to be showing up at WWDC, we would be seeing what iOS 6 would look like, as they previewed all iOS versions since 3.0 BEFORE the iPhone launch event.
 
chrf097 said:
Also, releasing the iPhone 5 (6/The New iPhone/whatever-the-hell-you-wanna call-it) is pretty much Apple sticking their middle finger with a hearty "Screw You!" to anyone who bought an iPhone 4S, like myself.

Fall releases coordinate with the holiday season. The iPhone is an icon into day's world. You can show a bunch a people different HTC models and they might not be able to name them, but they sure can name the iPhone any given day. Why release it in the Summer, when you can do it right around the holiday season and have a mass wave of iPhones and iPads being bought as Suzie and Johnny's christmas gifts?

Previewing iOS at WWDC along with MAYBE a hardware tease keeps interest in what's coming up and helps create anticipation for what we'll get in the Fall.

Also, I'm pretty sure that if the iPhone whatever were to be showing up at WWDC, we would be seeing what iOS 6 would look like, as they previewed all iOS versions since 3.0 BEFORE the iPhone launch event.
Click to expand...

I hardly see that Apple's introduction of the 4S was a middle finger to anyone as everyone had a choice on if they purchased or to and knew Apple would be doing another version before Xmas 2012. I can hardly see what Apple could do to make the 5 groundbreaking except to enlarge the screen. I seldom use Siri anymore which puts it in the "gimmick" mode for me. The 4S screen was the only real upgrade.
 
NewtonApple said:
I hardly see that Apple's introduction of the 4S was a middle finger to anyone as everyone had a choice on if they purchased or to and knew Apple would be doing another version before Xmas 2012. I can hardly see what Apple could do to make the 5 groundbreaking except to enlarge the screen. I seldom use Siri anymore which puts it in the "gimmick" mode for me. The 4S screen was the only real upgrade.
Click to expand...

No, introducing a new iPhone at WWDC would be a middle finger to 4S owners because they've just extremely limited the lifespan of the 4S all the sudden. Motorola did it with the Droid as they launched the Droid 3 just months after the Droid 2 was launched.
 
I think they moved the cycle to the fall for that holiday surge in spending. October is the perfect month to launch any hyped up gadget. There is not really any arguing that. Personally I despise christmas, but even I can see why they would want to change the timeline on the iPhone.
 
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