Help me understand.....

[jlblodgett]

Apple is set to release a new phone on Tuesday.

It is rumored that this new phone will look, on the outside, pretty much exactly like the iPhone 4 which was introduced in June 2010.

It is rumored that this new phone will contain a processor which has been in the iPad 2 since March 2011.

It is rumored that this new phone will contain an 8 megapixel camera - the sensors of which have been on the market for years now.

Otherwise, the new phone is exactly the same as the iPhone 4. Same retina screen. Same battery. Same home button.


So what the heck took 16 months to develop????

 

[thewitt]

Since we don't actually know WHAT is going to be announced, who can possibly answer your question?

 

[ah123]

Apple is set to release a new phone on Tuesday.

It is rumored that this new phone will look, on the outside, pretty much exactly like the iPhone 4 which was introduced in June 2010.

It is rumored that this new phone will contain a processor which has been in the iPad 2 since March 2011.

It is rumored that this new phone will contain an 8 megapixel camera - the sensors of which have been on the market for years now.

Otherwise, the new phone is exactly the same as the iPhone 4. Same retina screen. Same battery. Same home button.


So what the heck took 16 months to develop????

No, apple is set to announce a new phone on Tuesday (we think... there is still a chance that there'll be no phone!).

Just wait another day and all will be made clear.

 

[jlblodgett]

Since we don't actually know WHAT is going to be announced, who can possibly answer your question?

Assuming for the sake of discussion that the only phone that is introduced is the much rumored iPhone 4s -- again, I ask, what the heck has taken 16 months to develop?!!?

The iPhone 4s (as it is rumored) could have been introduced in April.

 

[eaglesteve]

May be due to parts disruption cause by the Japanese Tsunami, and switching of suppliers for some key components away from Samsung?

 

[o0jelly0o]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Since we don't actually know WHAT is going to be announced, who can possibly answer your question?

Assuming for the sake of discussion that the only phone that is introduced is the much rumored iPhone 4s -- again, I ask, what the heck has taken 16 months to develop?!!?

The iPhone 4s (as it is rumored) could have been introduced in April.

People think it has to do with the OS which of course an iPhone doesn't have to be released with a new OS, but if they did wait for the OS that's just more reason to believe there will be an iPhone 5, as it's iOS 5.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Assuming for the sake of discussion that the only phone that is introduced is the much rumored iPhone 4s -- again, I ask, what the heck has taken 16 months to develop?!!?

The iPhone 4s (as it is rumored) could have been introduced in April.

I don't agree with your assumptions, but for sake of this discussion: "Software". iCloud and Assistant perhaps couldn't be ready by April.

 

[androiphone]

Assuming for the sake of discussion that the only phone that is introduced is the much rumored iPhone 4s -- again, I ask, what the heck has taken 16 months to develop?!!?

The iPhone 4s (as it is rumored) could have been introduced in April.

It's because the white iPhone 4 only just came out before the June event so Apple wanted to be able to sell those for a good amount of time before the 'new' iPhone, that is the reason, why would they release a new version/colour and then immediately replace it with a better phone? apple is only about PROFITS just like any other company.

 

[shadrap]

What the heck took so long for voice assistant, notifications, and wireless updating. Android has been doing all if this for a while. Apple is bad about incremental updating until they get it right. The problem is they waited so long and Android is starting to get it right. Now you have Android phones with great screens, great cameras, and LTE.

I think we are beginning to see why Apple was so sue happy over Samsung products. They are afraid.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Now you have Android phones with great screens, great cameras, and LTE.

... and lousy software. I agree Apple is falling behind in hardware and are due for a better camera (which we'll see) and screen (still hoping). LTE is a non-issue unless you're stuck with Verizon, HSPA+ will be nice & still allow a useful battery life.

 

[Hellhammer]

There are already plenty of threads speculating about this, for example this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1237540/