You "banked on it being named 6", seriously? "give it up, move on".... You seriously sound like you are gloating because somebody beat you over the head with an "iPhone 6" stick and now you may be right about "iPhone 5". Grow up and stop being so defensive -- you sound like a child.
Yes it was a marketing nightmare with the 4S. The entire media screamed that it was not the "iPhone 5". Everybody was blasting Apple and wondering where the "iPhone 5" was. Apple responded by removing the number completely from the "iPad 3" and simply calling it "iPad". Either to avoid confusing "iPad 3" and "4G LTE" or because the "4S" naming was such a debacle. So yes, it was a nightmare after the announcement.
I'm not thinking geek-centric, but marketing centric. "4G LTE" and "iOS 6" and "iPhone 5" are all marketing terms. These are terms that the consumer and media will see and latch on to. The media was anything but oblivious to the name of the "4S". They went nuts over it not being the "iPhone 5" and many of us asked the question "if Apple had just called this the iPhone 5, would there have been such a stink". The big problem was that folks felt like they should be getting the "iPhone 5" and they were short-changed because it was called the "4S". Marco Arment and John Gruber both called this out.
Apple's response was the "iPad 3" became "The new iPad" -- no number at all.
I did not struggle with it one bit, but the media did. I'm trying to look at this from outside my perspective from the media and consumer standpoint. As far as I am concerned, Apple could call it the "iPhone XL" so long as it works well. See the link above from Gruber which references Marco.org. Apple marketing responded to this with a solution to remove the number from the next generation iPad. I'm just saying it only made sense for Apple marketing to follow suit on the iPhone.
In Summary
I seriously did not care about the naming that much, but you folks seem to take my little comment way too personally. Some of you "banked on it being named 6" -- I'm not quite sure what the heck that is suppose to mean -- that guy wants me to "give it up" and "move on" -- I'm not quite sure what I am suppose to "give up", since I did not really "bank on" anything here -- I'm just making an observation. What I do care about are all these defensive responses to my comment which seem determined to refute my opinion on the marketing of the next iPhone. I think I will maintain my opinion as to what the best name would be, but I am really at peace with the fact that I don't get to name the next iPhone.
Some of you took offense to my pointing out the inconsistency in the numbering between iOS 6, 4G LTE, and iPhone 5 (all marketing terms) -- my argument was to remove the numbers to simplify would make more sense (you know, like the iPad) -- but I had no clue that so many here were so personally invested in the "iPhone 5" name and had felt the need to lash out now that it looks like they may be correct. I don't think I ever made a freaking comment that has drawn more backlash. Apparently you all care about the name so much. I will pray every night for the next 8 days that they really are naming it the "iPhone 5" for all of your sakes. I would hate to see the "5" shadow mean something else and all of you have to face this forum on September 12th crying about the name of the next generation iPhone. But don't stay up late at night worrying about it -- I'm pretty sure it will be called the "iPhone 5".
And now for a more light-hearted comment:
The Apple I computer sold for $666. Coincidence?
