At its iPhone event last week, Apple failed to show off the iPhone 5, deciding instead to unveil its iPhone 4S. Although that device is quite nice in its own right, it fails to live up to the hype that surrounded the iPhone 5. According to rumors that cropped up before the event, the iPhone 5 was "supposed to" have a big display, 4G connectivity, and several other features that would have made it a hit among consumers and perhaps enterprise users, alike. But now that the iPhone 5 won’t be making his way to store shelves, consumers might be wondering when the device will finally do so. At this point, Apple isn’t talking, and it’s quite possible that the company won’t make any announcements for quite some time. But if history is to be one’s guide, it looks quite likely that the iPhone 5 will make its debut in 2012. By then, just about all the pieces will fall into place to make it the right time to release the device. Some might be wondering why Apple will wait until next year to release its iPhone 5. After all, those folks say, if it exists already, why shouldn’t it be coming out this year? Unfortunately, there are several reasons the iPhone 5 will need to wait until next year. Here’s why.
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The iPhone 4S Is Available Now It seems that Apple had plans all along to announce the iPhone 4S. So, in an effort to not hurt sales of that device, the company will wait to release the iPhone 5 next year. Sure, it might not make those who wanted the iPhone 5 happy, but from a business perspective, it’s the right move for Apple to make.
Apple Wants to Get More Out of the iPhone 4 If Apple unveiled both the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 at its recent event, the company would have faced some issues. For one, the iPhone 4 would have needed to be priced much lower -- about where the iPhone 3GS is now (free) -- to make room for the cheap iPhone 4S. By deciding against launching the iPhone 5 just yet, Apple can still get more out of the iPhone 4. Like it or not, the iPhone 4 still has market value, and Apple doesn’t want to see that slip away.
Apple Has No Faith In Android Competitors If Apple was really facing pressure from Android competitors, the company would have showed off the iPhone 5 at the event. But so far, Android competitors, including Samsung, HTC, and Motorola Mobility, have shown nothing that makes Apple scared. The iPhone 5 is the trump card Apple is just sitting on, and it’ll play that card only when it feels it must. That necessity just i¬¬sn’t present right now.
4G Isn’t Ready Much of the talk surrounding the iPhone 4S’ better speeds ignores one key fact: the 14.4Mbps downlink is only available on AT&T’s network. The device on both Verizon’s and Sprint’s networks will be running at the same old 3G speeds folks have grown accustomed to with the iPhone 4. Apple’s decision to not bring 4G to the iPhone 4S is a controversial one, but it speaks to the state of wireless networks today.
Bigger Displays Mean Design Issues Currently, rumors surrounding the iPhone 5 suggest the device will come with an edge-to-edge display that is much bigger than the 3.5-inch option currently available in the iPhone 4S. While that might appeal to many folks, the reality is, designing such a display takes time and requires several design compromises. Perhaps Apple wants to wait until next year to get it right before it offers up its latest handset.
It’s Waiting On NFC One of the key features of Apple’s iPhone 5 is supposed to be near-field communication. With that feature in tow, Apple will reportedly be able to deliver a mobile-payment service, similar to Google’s Wallet offering. However, NFC is still a year away from being fully understood by consumers, and many merchants have yet to see value in it. Perhaps Apple is waiting for NFC and mobile payments to be more popular before the company unveils the iPhone 5 with that technology built-in.
It Wants to Get Users Onto iCloud First There is something to be said for not bombarding employees with too many updates in a single year. Aside from the iPhone 4S, Apple has also unveiled iOS 5 and a new cloud-based service, called iCloud. If the company showed off the iPhone 5 this year, it might have distracted customers from all the other products it has launched, especially iCloud. There is a lot riding on Apple’s cloud-based service, and the last thing the company needs is to distract people with a major refresh to its handset. It appears that 2011 will be the year of iCloud.
Apple Doesn’t Like Major Updates Every Year Apple waiting until next year to release the iPhone 5 seems to follow what the company has done all along. Since the iPhone first launched in 2007, Apple has only offered major upgrades every other year or so. And last year, Apple showed off the iPhone 4, which at the time, it called the biggest update to the smartphone yet. Realizing that, 2011 is the year of the iterative update, if history is to be our guide, and 2012 is when the next major refresh will occur.
Concerns Over the iPad 3 The biggest issue with Apple selling two wildly popular devices -- the iPhone and iPad -- is that sometimes, one can have a negative impact on the other. In today’s economy, consumers may choose only one. Sometimes, that’s the iPhone; other times, it’s the iPad. Considering Apple is likely readying its iPad 3 for an early-2012 release, it might have been a smart move on the company’s part to hold off on a major iPhone update to give the iPad 3 the floor. The iPhone has a tendency to cast all other products in its shadow -- including the iPad.
Production Problems The problem with Apple products, as manufacturing partners have said time and again, is that it’s very difficult to produce them. Nowhere is that more evident than in the delay of the white iPhone, which caused all kinds of trouble for Apple’s manufacturing partners. If the iPhone 5 really is as big of an update as reports claim, it’s quite possible it faced production problems, and Apple was forced to wait until next year to even consider launching it.
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