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Sprint

Part of me feels there is more to Apple / Sprint deal than meets the eye...
 
Remember when the iPhone 4 was released and it surfaced that Apple had also been developing a model that was very similar to the 3GS as a last minute backup in case there were issues producing the 4? It's entirely possible that actually occurred this time, where the 4S and a possible iPhone 5 were produced simultaneously, with the 5 encountering production/quality issues.

6 iPhone 4G *trollface, problem?*

Apple iPhone VI S

"I like it!"
 
I'm not sure why people expect Apple to change designs every year. They have the accessory ecosystem to worry about. If Apple had changed designs, and had managed to keep the final design secret until launch, accessories likely wouldn't be ready for the critical Christmas buying season, which will upset not only hardware partners but customers looking for variety as well.

Personally, I wonder if some of these leaks are designed to flush out leakers and people who break NDAs.
 
"We've heard nothing about when the next generation iPhone will arrive, but if we had to guess, we'd think Apple would stick to a late fall schedule again in 2012."

There is absolutely no way of telling when a new phone will come out. When it's ready, it's ready. The time table for these phones are all out of whack. If Apple waiting til Fall 2012 for an LTE they would be way behind everyone else.
 
When i said this last week "Apple seems to have established a pattern for their iPhone releases with external design changes seemingly scheduled every two generations (Original iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S)." Albeit not in the same words i was thumbed down, shame on you that did that now.
 
So, there is some hope that we will ultimately see the design in the future, though it's also possible that this exact design will never make its way to production.

So... it may or may not happen? This insight borders on prophetic.

Whatever. All I know is it must really suck to be an iP5 case supplier right now.
 
I guess very few current iPhone 4 owners can justify to spend another expensive 2 year contract for a phone that looks exactly the same.

Since when is the only justification for buying a new phone is that it "looks different?"
 
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16 months passed and all they come up is that?

Why do you assume it was 16 months to come up with the iPhone 4s? The previous iPhone4 was the best selling handset last quarter and increased in sales. It’s economics, clearly the iPhone 4 form factor is still hugely popular, retooling the production lines it hugely expensive and we’re in very uncertain economic times.

While I admit I was surprised there wasn’t a new form factor, simply because this was Tim’s first product announcement and I figured Wall Street in their infinite stupidity would see this as a “sign of things to come”. It shows why Apple is one of, if not the most successful company in the world right now.
 
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I believe the reason for iPhone 4S name is that they want to call the 2012 model the iPhone 4G (assuming its 4G). I don't think we'll see a phone named iPhone 5 or iPhone 6. Thoughts?
 
Case design makes no sense.

This supposedly real case design makes no Apple sense. The chin is big, the top is really small. How in the heck are you supposed to hold it, and rest your thumbs in landscape? Apple design always is always symmetrical to hold your thumbs on the sides in landscape. See all iPhones, iPods, iPads. This design is simply leaked by Apple to catch a leak. Apple wanted to know where the leaks always came from, now they know. And everybody fell for it.
 
Since when is the only justification for buying a new phone is that it "looks different?"

Possibly the mentality of being able to physically see that something is new. There are a lot of people out there that have to see a change of design to really consider something "new".
 
I guess very few current iPhone 4 owners can justify to spend another expensive 2 year contract for a phone that looks exactly the same. Sure the upgraded internals are nice, but all have been expected since the debut of iPad 2 (i.e. A5 chip with improved graphics, more RAM (still in doubt, maybe it's still 512MB), better 8MP camera from Sony, and Siri.

I can justify the upgrade. I am going to be up at 3am to preorder mine. I don't get the huge backlash over the "same design". The wife will have her's when she is up for an upgrade, though she will be coming from a 3GS, so it will be that much sweeter for her.

Anyone expecting their most successful phone design to be changed after one iteration, were obviously wrong.

I am happy with the upgrade and it is exactly what I expected and it kept in line with the history of iphone releases. I like the feel of the 4 and I am not sure about a tapered design, especially using it in landscape mode. Will have to see when and if that is the actual next phone.

Next year's will be the redesign and slightly bigger screen.
 
I find it very honest and professional that MR gives explanations about its (failed?) guesses. Not like almost every other rumor blogs that highlight what they got right and ignore what they didn't.
 
I have no problem with Apple doing minor "spec bump" releases between major design refreshes. The problem is that this spec bump took a year and a half.

Spec bumps should come out 6-9 months after a release. 12-18 months should = new design.
 
Good point.

1 iPhone
2 iPhone 3G
3 iPhone 3GS
4 iPhone 4
5 iPhone 4S
6 iPhone __
The logic doesn't work. They used '3G' because they were releasing a 3G phone. If there's any connection at all the next phone will be the 4G, but for a number of reasons I doubt they'll head in that direction. It will probably be iPhone 5.
 
That's what you get for getting your hopes so high. It's funny it only happens to Apple. I never hear some rumor that Samsung is gonna release something crazy, and then people cry about it.

I think Apple going the right route, they are very cautious to introduce something that they aren't 100% sure about. It's because they are under such spotlight that any small mistake will cost them "media disaster," like "antennagate."

So far Apple hasn't been loosing any market share, just gaining. Only Android is gaining so much market share at the cost of Blackberry and Windows Phones, but not Apple's. When it becomes 49/49, then Apple will get their guns out.
 
Take a bow Macrumors!!

Take a bow Macrumors!! You and other sites like you have cost Apple billions of dollars and have angered many fans. Maybe next time you can keep your totally unfounded 'rumors' to yourself.
 
Let's face it, Apple doesn't want to be in the position where consumers expect them to fundamentally redesign the phone every year. That's a lot of work for a design that doesn't last that long at the high end. Plus, each redesign means it's harder to top yourself the next time around. Just look at how the iPod Classic line has stagnated so much over the years to the point it's not even mentioned during keynotes anymore.

Apple has already proven that there's such a thing as overdesign when they created the 3rd generation Shuffle. It had no buttons and could only be controlled via voice, frustrating users. It was hated so badly that the 4th generation was basically a 2nd generation Shuffle with new colors.

The actual design of the hardware can only change so much. For example, I don't think we'll ever see any more significant camera updates in new iPhones worth talking about. What would be better than 8MP stills/1080p video recording that would be reasonable to stick into a phone? The future of the iPhone platform is iOS itself because that's where real innovation can happen for several years to come.

Lastly, I want to point out this MacRumors story from January. If you remember the video, the steel frame is exactly what's used in the iPhone 4S with the same positioning of the antenna separators as well as a micro SIM card slot (something the Verizon iPhone doesn't have). That would indicate that the final design of the iPhone 4S was ready at least 9 months ago. If so, the leaked "iPhone 5 designs" were likely very early prototypes of next year's hardware design. If such a design leaked a year before release, it would really get Apple into a tizzy because there would be ample amount of time to copy the design before its release (thus Apple has involved the SF Police and gone to great length to go find it ASAP). You have to admit that looking back, this scenario makes a LOT of sense.
 
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Take a bow Macrumors!! You and other sites like you have cost Apple billions of dollars and have angered many fans. Maybe next time you can keep your totally unfounded 'rumors' to yourself.

it's called mac RUMORS, duh! There's a big disclaimer here saying that these are rumors, MR do a great job reporting all the RUMORS on the internet. RUMORS.
 
I have no problem with Apple doing minor "spec bump" releases between major design refreshes. The problem is that this spec bump took a year and a half.

Spec bumps should come out 6-9 months after a release. 12-18 months should = new design.

Well this applies to companies like Samsung where they have nothing else to do but release 10 different versions of phones with different names, just to gain some market share. Apple doesn't have that problem, so they don't need to rush anywhere. If you would know, Apple doesn't follow any kind of rules, but rules of their own, and I don't think 12-18 months is Apple's rule.
 
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