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Why did it take Apple this long to bring out the 4S?

I think they just wanted to change the product release schedule. Their two hottest selling items are iPad and iPhone. They want to spread the wealth.

Funny thing is I bought iPhone 4 on Verizon when it released in February. My upgrade eligibility date is October, 7, 2012. Exactly one year after the 4s Pre order. Leads me to believe this is when the 2012 iPhone will become available.
 
kdarling said:
Just a note:

A Verizon executive said not long ago, that they had originally expected the new iPhone in June to boost their earnings.
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yep, there is no reason to think that Apple delayed the next iPhone just to sell more phones on one carrier in the world.

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shadrap said:
I think they just wanted to change the product release schedule. Their two hottest selling items are iPad and iPhone. They want to spread the wealth.

Funny thing is I bought iPhone 4 on Verizon when it released in February. My upgrade eligibility date is October, 7, 2012. Exactly one year after the 4s Pre order. Leads me to believe this is when the 2012 iPhone will become available.
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that's ridiculous.
 
I think they just simply made the decision to start releasing it in the fall. That and all the software wasn't ready.
 
steve dave said:
yep, there is no reason to think that Apple delayed the next iPhone just to sell more phones on one carrier in the world.

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that's ridiculous.
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Why is it ridiculous? They will sell iPads in the spring and iPhones in the fall. WWDC in the summer will be OS related. I believe this is their schedule from here on out. As do most tech sites.
 
shadrap said:
Why is it ridiculous? They will sell iPads in the spring and iPhones in the fall. WWDC in the summer will be OS related. I believe this is their schedule from here on out. As do most tech sites.
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Your claim is that they chose the release date for the iphone 4 on verizon so that people that bought them on launch day would have their next upgrade available the exact day that they are going to offer preorders for a phone two generations away?



really?
 
urkel said:
Thats true, but some two year contracts are easier to swallow than others. Like, people who bought a 3G in 2008 missed out on 3GS but where able to get the 4 in 2010 which is a monumental upgrade, but people who bought the Verizon iPhone 4 in 2011 will miss out on both the 4S and wont be eligible for the 5 until it's well into its product cycle.
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I bought a 4 on launch day on Verizon, and my upgrade date is October 5th, 2012. If they release the iPhone 5 the same time as they did the 4S, I won't miss out on it.
 
steve dave said:
Your claim is that they chose the release date for the iphone 4 on verizon so that people that bought them on launch day would have their next upgrade available the exact day that they are going to offer preorders for a phone two generations away?



really?
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I don't know for sure. I am saying that is a theory. If they wanted to switch product cycles, why would it be crazy to encompass the most amount of people. All other iPhone users were eligible or close to being eligible. Now with the new cycle the next iPhone hits the most people possible.

Either way, I bet the next iPhone will not be available until fall of next year. No matter what theory is right. The 2nd generation chips apple wants to use for LTE will not be available until Q2. This gives them time to produce the phone for a fall release.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think they simply wanted to change the time of year the annual iPhone event takes place.

Consider the following:

•Previous to the iPhone, the fall iPod event was the focus of Apple's pre-holiday marketing. With the steady reduction of iPods sales (and other brand mp3 players), Apple would be best served to move a different product into that prime September/October marketing spot.

• iPad is also a bigtime consumer focused product, and with the iPad event happening early in the year, the June/July iPhone event made even less sense. You need some time separation so customers don't feel that they have to choose one OR the other.

So Apple letting the iPhone take over the fall iPod event (iPod becoming the "also talked about" product) makes perfect sense to me.
 
I think there were 3 key things that lead to the delay of the iPhone 4s.

1. White iPhone was delayed to earlier this year (April)
2. The CDMA iPhone 4 was released earlier this year (February)
3. The iPad2 and iPhone 4 cycles were really close together (March and July)

Now they'll have spaced out the iPhone and iPad announcements.
 
aneftp said:
Yep. Verizon getting iPhone 4 in February was one of the main factors.

I think Apple promised Verizon executives at least a 6 month timeframe.

But I also think Apple didn't have ios5 ready and that contributed to another month delayed.

In a perfect world Apple would have used Setember back to school time to launch the new iPhone.
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Verizon was actually disappointed that the iPhone didn't launch in the summer and caused them to have to readjust their guidance for the quarter that they believed the iPhone was going to be released.
 
amdmaxx said:
9mm nexus prime has LTE..
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Knowing apple they would try their damnedest to fit everyone's LTE standard into the iPhone. With Sprint not finishing their LTE Until 2013 I won't be surprised if the iPhone5 comes without LTE and iPhone5S does in 2013.
 
akuma13 said:
Knowing apple they would try their damnedest to fit everyone's LTE standard into the iPhone. With Sprint not finishing their LTE Until 2013 I won't be surprised if the iPhone5 comes without LTE and iPhone5S does in 2013.
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I want to see the battery life on that sucker, 4.6 inch screen and LTE!
 
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