[frame]I’m incredibly sad about the passing of Steve Jobs even though I’d never met him personally. The world has lost an incredible visionary. My condolences go out to his friends and family and others who are touched by his death.
I began the remainder of this post (below) yesterday morning and was planning on completing and posting it last night but opted to delay it given the sad news about Steve Jobs.[/frame]
Yesterday was crazy, wasn’t it? All those rumors and the speculation frenzy came to a head as Apple finally unveiled the next Jesus Phone, the iPhone 4S that will be available starting October 14 (and go up for pre-order on October 7). Was it what I expected? Not really. Am I still going to buy one? You betcha.
As I’ve mentioned, I really expected Apple to come out with a new design to make a “real” iPhone 5 and differentiate it from the iPhone 4. Clearly, I was wrong. Perhaps this is Apple preparing us for how their iPhone cycle will work for the next few years?
The Loop points out an interesting article that speculates on what it takes to design a new iPhone, particularly one with 4G/LTE. It’s a pretty long piece but the general gist for you TL;DR folks is that it takes a lot of engineering work to move to a new cellular radio chipset platform and integrate it with custom hardware. Considering everything outlined there, I was probably underestimating the complexity of building a new iPhone model.
At any rate, this isn’t new to us long-time iPhone users. Apple did this no-design-change-but-other-internal-improvements dance when going from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS. It’s certainly easier when it comes to accessories, both for the manufacturers and consumers who upgrade to the new iPhone each year (since they don’t need to buy all new accessories for a new device). And I must admit that I am a bit happy I won’t have to go out and buy new cases, screen protectors, etc. Though I could also view this as an excuse to buy some new accessories I had held off from buying because I was expecting an iPhone with a new design – the TwelveSouth BookBook (affiliate link) comes to mind.
So far, it sounds like Apple will open pre-orders for the iPhone 4S at 12:00 a.m. Pacific time on October 7. Since I’m on the east coast, I’ll be setting my alarm to wake up just before 3:00 a.m. Eastern time on Friday morning to place my preorder for one shiny black 64GB iPhone 4S.
It will be possible to place a preorder using the Apple Store iOS app, which is the route I plan to try out first so I can try to avoid even leaving my warm and cozy bed in the middle of the night. Laziness FTW.
Will you be ordering an iPhone 4S?
Note: The title of this post is a reference to The KLF’s one-hit wonder (iTunes link) that came out in the early 90’s. Yes, I know my mind is a strange place.
I’m upgrade eligible on November 9th. Need to balance a need to be frugal vs my lust for a new iPhone.
I’m surprised that AT&T is not offering upgrade pricing to all current iPhone 4 owners. It seems like this would be prudent to prevent subscribers from defecting to Verizon or even Sprint, right? Hope they change their policy on this so you can get it sooner! Otherwise, be prepared for me to openly flaunt my sweet new iPhone 4S starting October 14. š
Hey Marianne.
Yesterday certainly was a crazy day, and one thing in particular that comes to mind whenever I think about all this is the fact that the Apple folks at yesterday’s presentation (Tim, Scott, Phil…) surely knew about Steve’s current physical condition, and that alone must have popped up in their heads several times when they were supposed to be having a great time revealing the next Jesus iPhone. It must’ve been a terrible feeling for them. I personally am kinda stricken by the fact that Steve passed away — it has certainly been a huge loss, and not only for us fanboys, consumers and developers, but for the world as well.
With the aforementioned on a side, I’ve got to say that I’m not surprised that Apple didn’t put out some sort of aesthetically redesigned iPhone; I mean, they made the same move back when the 3GS was released, and a month before the 4S’s launch we still had not heard many things about the so-called iPhone 5 people was expecting. On the contrary, everything was centered around the Assistant feature, the A5 chip, and the 8-megapixel camera. Pretty much.
With that said, let me reply to your question: yes I will be ordering an iPhone 4S (!). I think it’s gonna be (in Phil Schiller’s words) *killer*.
Nestor,
You’re probably right – Apple execs were probably aware of Steve’s condition as they presented on Tuesday. That must have been difficult for them.
Regarding the lack of a redesign for the iPhone, I was really thinking that Apple had finally found a way to prevent any leaks and we were in for a big surprise. Oh well. That’ll teach me to get my hopes up. š However, I’m still looking forward to the 4S and think that the improved camera and Siri Assistant will be great.
Just one more week until we can get our hands on the iPhone 4S. Woot!