The announcement dropped yesterday: Apple event, September 12 (I’ll be out of town, time to charge up the iPad) and most significantly a big shadowy 5 at the bottom. Which means, in defiance of all logic, they’re going to call this thing the iPhone 5 – something I didn’t think possible, something I am sure wouldn’t have happened if Himself were still calling the shots, because this is the SIXTH iPhone. It already has the A5 processor, so it can’t be a reference to that…the only explanation is that they want to get into a rhythm with 3G (the second one; so-called because the iPhone in 2007 was EDGE-only), 3GS, 4, 4S, and now 5…which means 5S in 2013? Who knows.
I’m going to hold out. Partly because I’m out of contract and don’t want to commit to anything, partly because I’m seriously considering a carrier change and want to see how performance works out (both between carriers and relative to the 4S), partly because I want to see how good iOS 6 is on the 4S. And partly because I want to wait for it to show up in the various work contracts so I can ditch my personal phone and let work pick it up from now on (at a net savings to me of $35/month)…
There’s an uneasy sense around Apple these days. I don’t know if it comes from the clunker of “5”, or if it’s down to the iPad mini that everyone is trying to wish into existence (and feeling like it’s chasing inferior products from Samsung, and only there to cover the niche that the Nexus 7 is blowing up into), or if it’s the new head of retail who is apparently not competent to empty Ron Johnson’s recycling bin – and who has already had to backtrack vigorously from a plan to cut down staffing in Apple stores. Maybe it’s just unease at the Nexus 7, and the fact that Jellybean is finally a good enough version of Android, and Microsoft is finally back in the game – all of a sudden, the battle is joined, and there’s no longer a sense of inexorability and inevitability around Apple. The iPhone “5” (sigh) is going to need to bring things back to the cutting edge, or it’s going to be hard to shake the sense that after four unstoppable years, people are beginning to catch up.