People who are still persistent and full of hope that there will be a redesigned iPhone 5 are under the sheer delusion of geekness. You have to look at things through a businessman's, a marketer's point of view. After all, that is what Apple is. Not a geek boy, a world-wide company. You don't make more money than the Federal Bank without wondrous marketing plans, business tactics. Let me try to explain(like many other tried) why there won't be a redesigned iPhone 5.
1) Main thing about this Tuesday's event is iOS 5 and iCloud, more software than hardware i mean.
2) Apple worked so much on iPhone 4's current design. They state that antenna on the outside is a great innovation and won't be changing that. Plus, they just released CDMA iPhone 4 four months ago and it sold like crazy. Hell it's still selling. From Apple's point of view, iPhone 4 design is a cow still with a lot of milk to milk.
3) You have to think futuristic on these things. Think for a moment what can be new on the iPhone that will come out after this Tuesdays'. First thing that comes to mind is LTE capability isn't it? So i'm positive that there will be a LTE iPhone in 2012, of course there will be at least an announcement of an iOS 6 in 2012 too. So LTE capability is a huge thing and needs a new design. If they redesign the iPhone now, they will need another design next year, not a sane thing to do.
I think there won't be an iPhone 5 re-design this Tuesday mainly because Apple thinks that the iPhone 4 design can go on for at least 8-10 months. Come June, announce new iPhone and things get back in schedule(regular June, iPhone month schedule)
And unfortunately i am saying these still owning a iPhone 3G from the October of 2008, now without the lock button and extra slowness. I too would want an iPhone redesign especially after waiting this 4-5 months for a new phone but my logic is stating otherwise.
This will be long, but I advise everyone to read because it contains more substance than most of the posts here.
You can't tell everyone to 'think from a businessman's, a marketer's point of view' and give supporting statements in the definitive when the statements are weak, biased, and mindless 'points'
1. It's about the hardware. How does one claim it's about the software when it says 'Let's talk iPhone' on the official invitation
2. OK, the Verizon iPhone is still selling, and I'm not surprised given that it is an iPhone and that it was released just seven months ago. It is NOT selling even close to the rate that it was during the first few months that it came out. The rate diminishes immensely as you go through time (one of your businessman's point of views). The 'milk to milk' becomes milk drops the more time goes by when compared to something brand new.
From your marketer's point of view, the design is one of the top, if not the top reasons a customer makes his purchase. It has immediate appeal to the senses, and it is the one thing that a standard customer takes away with the most after looking at it online or playing with it in the store for a few minutes. Why do you think they immediately made the iPad 2 thinner and lighter. Couldn't they have made just an iPad 1.5 with the other new features -oh, which by the way, mimic the supposed 4S features to the dot - and 'milked the milk' out of that, all while waiting for the iPad 3 to bust out the thinner and lighter design?
They are expecting to sell 30 million of these phones IN ONE QUARTER, which is around 9 million MORE than the record setting quarter in 2010. This cannot be accomplished when just a 4 and a 4S are both sitting on the shelf. Customers have to dig to get a grasp on the new features, and even then they are not significant.
3. LTE needs a new design? You don't even know the 5's design, you don't understand Apple's design team, and you probably don't know what an LTE chip looks like (I don't know either, which is why you don't see me posting about what Apple is going to do with LTE).
Finally, notice how 9to5mac now says it has been independently expecting a 4S, while a week ago they said their sources have used the 5 and told them it is a device to behold. And later on, oh by the way there are 'production problems' all of a sudden, and we somehow find this out towards the end of the month, so even though we just said we fully expect a 5, now we are just going to change our minds. Think about the fact that production has been going on now for at least a month. They would have found out about 'production problems' earlier
Notice how Apple Insider is reporting the story about the 4S in iTunes beta. Their supporting evidence is that Ming Kuo guy's report. They don't mention anything about the other reports supporting the 5, and they don't even mention the POSSIBILITY of Apple just using this as a placeholder and leaking it to curb expectations.
Thisismynext first reported about the teardrop, and they haven't reneged on that. Reports about two phones originated in the beginning of the year. Throughout the
whole year, rumors about two phones have been persistent.
This is all a coordinated effort. You don't project to sell 30 million (and keep in mind Apple always projects low) after deciding to bill your new phone as a 4S and leaking that information all away. You project to sell 30 million after making a fully new iPhone 5 and by making sure that it doesn't get leaked, thus creating much, much, much more hype. At that point, you don't even have to rely on Apples' marketers' points of view.
