What is apples deal with numbers?

[GKDAIR]

A5X
3GS
4S
New Ipad (I know its not called this, but apple isn't calling it the Ipad 3


Why not just call it a 5? Or A6? Don't get me wrong I love apple and after researching the new ipad I plan on picking up, but hell It wouldnt suprise me if apples next chip is called the A5XY

 

[SHIFTLife]

A5X
3GS
4S
New Ipad (I know its not called this, but apple isn't calling it the Ipad 3


Why not just call it a 5? Or A6? Don't get me wrong I love apple and after researching the new ipad I plan on picking up, but hell It wouldnt suprise me if apples next chip is called the A5XY

Does any of that really matter? Does it have any bearing whatsoever on whether the device will work as advertised and fit your needs?

 

[mgipe]

A rose by any other name....

 

[admanimal]

The names tend to indicate the degree to which the product has changed. The A5X is the same as the A5 but with a new GPU. If both the GPU and CPU had been updated, I'm sure they would have called it the A6.

Same deal with the iPhones. The 3GS was very similar to the 3G- the 4 was very different. The 4S is very similar to the 4, etc.

They appear to be moving away from using any kind of naming scheme and just going with the product name. This is possibly a reaction to what happened last year with the whole iPhone 4S/5 thing.

 

[kmj2318]

They appear to be moving away from using any kind of naming scheme and just going with the product name. This is possibly a reaction to what happened last year with the whole iPhone 4S/5 thing.

I wish they would get rid of the numbers for the iPhone. it made sense at the beginning because the revisions were extreme, now it seems like the product updates are becoming more gradual. It would be sort of confusing to people if they continued to sell previous models alongside the newer model however. Like the iPad now, I wonder how strange it is for people who are not familiar with it when they go into a store and see that the newest iPad is just iPad, but the cheaper one is iPad 2.