The Next Generation iPhone

Living with my now obsolete white iPhone 3GS which I must admit, has served me well over the past year and a half, I've been waiting impatiently for the next generation iPhone. Please GTFO now if you're going to make some unreasonable unjustified anti Apple comment. I don't like trolls.

Being the fanboy I am, everyone has been asking me when the next generation iPhone is finally going to be released. It certainly is a biggie for me at least. My vibration toggle started playing up and I need a new one. It also feels too sluggish running the latest iOS, which was optimized for the A4 equipped iPhone 4. I don't like the Android experience, although I haven't really used it long enough to judge it. But nonetheless, I've become too attached to iOS and don't see any real incentives to change.

We'll miss you Steve :(

Apple usually holds two big events every year (iOS related ones anyway). First is the World Wide Developers' Conference (WWDC), usually held on the second Monday of June every year. Apple has used the WWDC to announce every iPhone (2G, 3G, 3GS, 4) from 2007 to 2010, and released the devices two to four months following the announcement. This regular pattern however was broken this year when Apple explicitly stated that the next generation iPhone was not going to be announced at WWDC '11. At the time I was sort of happy that it was being delayed because my current iPhone was working fine and it meant that I had more time to save up for it, wee. I suspect that the delay was due to the manufacturing problems they had with the white iPhone 4, meaning they had less resources to work on the development of the upcoming device.

So let alone its release, when the hell is it even being announced?

Well, the other major event Apple usually holds is in the first two weeks of September, usually announcing their new iPod range. Well, we're now nearing the end of September and it hasn't happened yet. Fear not, Macrumors reports that an event is extremely likely to be held on Oct 4. Macrumors also reports that the upcoming iOS5 is likely to be making its way to iTunes on Oct 10. Why are these dates important? Here's a(n ugly) timeline of relevant dates:

2007
WWDC 2007	11 Jun	Monday	(iPhone)
iPhone	29 Jun	Friday
2008
WWDC 2008	9 Jun	Monday	(iPhone 3G)
iPhone OS 2	11 Jul	Friday
iPhone 3G	11 Jul	Friday
iPhone 3G NZ	11 Jul	Friday
Media Event	9 Sep	Tuesday	(iPod Touch 2G)
iPod Touch 2G	9 Sep	Tuesday
2009
WWDC 2009	8 Jun	Monday	(iPhone 3GS)
iPhone OS 3	17 Jun	Wednesday
iPhone 3GS	19 Jun	Friday
iPhone 3GS NZ	10 Jul	Friday
Media Event	9 Sep	Wednesday	(iPod Touch 3G)
iPod Touch 3G	9 Sep	Wednesday
2010
WWDC 2010	7 Jun	Monday	(iPhone 4)
iOS4	21 Jun	Monday
iPhone 4	24 Jun	Thursday
iPhone 4 NZ	30 Jul	Friday
Media Event	1 Sep	Wednesday	(iPod Touch 4G)
iPod Touch 4G	6 Sep	Monday

Notice how after an announcement of the iPhone, the iOS launch closely follows (within two weeks at most), then the iPhone (within days).

Given the above timeline, I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation iPhone gets launched on the week starting October 10th. Most likely on the 14th, following their usual pattern of Friday release dates.

This prediction however, is the US launch date and probably not the NZ launch date. Sad face. There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern of the delay so who knows, hopefully it won't be far off the US release date.

You may have noticed that I have deliberately called it the "next generation iPhone". This is because, no one (public) knows what it's called yet.

iPhone 4S vs iPhone 5

Rumors point to two devices relating to the next generation iPhone.

First is an 'iPhone 4S', with no major design changes but with a performance boost.

Second is an 'iPhone 5' with major design changes and a performance boost. Here is the notorious iPhone 5 photo:

An artist's rendition of the next generation iPhone 

It features a larger and simmer 'teardrop design' device with a 4" screen, vibration switch on the right side of the device, 8 megapixel camera and some sort of touch-sensitive larger home button. This is just an artist's rendition of what the device might look like, based on rumors and leaked case designs. FFS Mr Jobs didn't casually take a photo of the new device and upload it on his Twitter or something.

As to which device we can expect next month, I'm not really sure what to believe. It's almost certain that the 'iPhone 4S' will debut as there are plenty of leaked photos but not a lot of this 'iPhone 5' except a few Chinese manufacturers making cases to get ahead of the competition.

Partially assembled 'iPhone 4S'

Oh and please, a Vodafone NZ employee is not a 'credible source' for when the next iPhone will release. They don't know shit because they're not told shit. They're only telling you it'll only be released next year because otherwise you won't buy their leftover iPhone 4 stock. /rant

I haven't blogged in ages and it's mainly because I just CBF. Most things I usually rant about I just post on Twitter and/or Facebook. I had to post this though, because.. well because I hate fucktards that bash Apple and rely on false information they thought they heard from this guy's girlfriend's dad's boss's friend who talked to Steve's dad who actually showed them the iPhone 5 in person (Steve was adopted and both biological and adopted parents deceased).