Never usually get involved in these discussions because there is a tremendous amount of personal bias, misunderstanding, stubbornness, and overall fanboyism/anti-fanboyism that no matter how persuasive your point, you'll still have fans on each side of the aisle. That said, there are a few points that have not been discussed which are more factual and are worth noting, especially for the OP who I am only interested in responding to since he/she sounds unsure about what to do.
Point 1: iPhone "5". There was a spot on little article by either Gruber or CNET about why there was no iPhone 5 - simply it all has to do with carrier contracts. Unlike in other countries, the 2 year contract for subsidized pricing is standard in the US. As such, it is clear Apple, now involved in the phone game, understands this and as a one product phone company, is on the same 2 year cycle for major phone refreshes. This point was made before the 4S came out and was the main reason why i would have bet the farm that this was an incremental upgrade. The majority of people do not "early upgrade" their phones until eligible and the ones that do are the ones that will continue to do so and will buy every incremental iPhone/Android upgrade. Apple is the only company that has to really abide by these laws since they control the OS and the hardware, for better or worse for them and us. All other manufacturers are hardware only and thus there business is putting out multiple phones a year to appeal to as many people as possible. And since they have no idea when a new OS is coming, they cannot rely on that as their differentiator. Your comparison to the iPad and pissed off people is not relevant in this conversation since its a completely different product and has a free and clear data plan - and thus what Apple does with the iPad is different since its not tied to cellular contracts. Advice: You will not see another iPhone until next year so that should be a major consideration for you in your decision since you should be thinking of the 4S as the Apple phone to compare for the next 12 months.
Point 2: Specs. Not going to debate if an A5 or a snapdragon dual core is better nor am I going debate who has the slightly better camera or whether bigger screen is better. Here is the reality. The "antiquated" argument is ridiculous if you are trying to say the 1280x720 screen comes out and Apples 960X540 screen is old technology. Similarly the same on the processors. Technology advances every day. Tomorrows tech will be newer than yesterdays. If you were just buying one of those components the choice is easy. But you are not. You are buying everything from just a simple phone with a browser to an entire user experience and mobile ecosystem. Its user dependant. A little not so obvious yet very obvious reality. Software is more important than hardware in today's hardware commoditized world. That is not to say hardware doesn't have an impact but a straight hardware comparison is simply irrelevant when comparing different mobile OSs/phones. I own an iPhone 4 and a Droid Bionic. Feel free to look up the spec comparison. But the Bionic has a lot of this "newer" technology as you might refer to it when compared to the iPhone 4. Which is a better phone? Not worth me answering since i have no idea how to define better. But I can tell you this which is not really debatable. The iPhone is still an incredibly more fluid/simple/integrated user experience overall and the tight integration between hardware and software is clearly a tremendous advantage that no other major competitor (android/windows) enjoys - unfortunately. Everything else is certainly open for debate. Advice: Instead of spec matching or worrying about LTE or NFC, ask yourself 1) How do I use my phone most of my day, 2) What can I not live without, 3) Is there something coming which is a must have and thus worth me waiting. Apples tight integration with its app store, music and multimedia content, other devices, soon to be iCloud (although yet to be tested how important/well/necessary this is), etc may be too great for you to pass up. Or as a google user, Androids tight integration with Google services may also make your feel the same way. But for most people, the answers to 1 and 2 will drive their purchase decision much more heavily than screen size, a few mghz, or a few megapixels. Despite the marketing. And there is good reason for this - in real world usage, most of this stuff is just not noticeable and impactful enough to supersede the above. A small anecdote to this point as it related to LTE. LTE is fast. And Boat Browser I think is the best Android browser. The combo is deadly and compared to the iPhone 4 with just CDMA and Safari (still my fav), obviously its no contest when i compare downloading files or how fast I can load content rich site. Practically speaking - I browse tons of sites most of which are mobile optimized and access much of my content these days through RSS app and Twitter. When I actually decided to compare usage for a few days, it was pretty clear for me the LTE benefit sounds amazing but just didn't play out that way in daily usage. Hence why you need to ask yourself the questions above because its really the only thing that matters and goes so much further in helping you answer your key question.
Point 3: All this comparing who sells the most phones, who has the most market share, Apple is doomed or Apple is in trouble or Android sucks because its fragmented is such rubbish. Its really so simple. Apple has now invented and defined and revolutionized three major mobile categories. MP3 players, Smartphones, and tablets. Lets forget MP3 because its on its way our as a standalone category. The firsts in each of these categories were so game changing that nothing post can compare to them. Not from Apple and not from anyone else. These markets are still relatively new and the name of the game is incremental innovation. Each OS has its pros and cons. I actually give credit to MSFT for trying to break the apple/android mold but lets be honest guys, everything being done is small innovations. All three of these OSs are in relative equal maturity and parity. And that is a very sobering thought if you comprehend it. iOS is the leader and Android is close. MSFT is way behind and if you really want to see innovation out of Apple and Google then we should all be rooting for MSFT and Nokia. They have the most ground to make up and parity with Android and Apple aint gonna cut it. And unfortunately, as long as Google continues to play games with Android (not open sourcing the os right away, doing foolish things like buying motorola), the handset manufacturers are heavily handicapped in what they can produce because of their inability to control software and hardware like Apple.
Last point. Siri may end up being a very big innovation, maybe even possibly revolutionary. Or it may be nothing more than Ping 2. Apple may not have invented it (they bought it) but give them credit for recognizing this as a potential game changer (they have been talking about this concept for years) and buying it and tightly integrating it. It may not be as risky as trying to define a category but it certainly is more than an incremental innovation attempt. It really should not be blown off as easily as some people are doing until we all spend some serious time with it. I really hope we see google and MSFT make similar attempts at innovation in this market because competition should be embraced not used as a club by one one fanboy to bash another.
