My only concern is this - why buy an iPhone 4 on Verizon when the next model is due in a few months? Will be interesting to see if this pisses people off.
That’s one of the downsides of having such a simple product line. Who (except for a tiny minority) even knows when HTC or Samsung release a new phone? The announcement of a new iPhone makes headlines and it’s also introduced as a replacement, not just another different model. (Technology progresses. Blaming any tech company for introducing a newer, better and cheaper model is stupid. A phone you buy today will be just as good in three years.)
My guess would be that people will not be very pissed. There will be lame jokes but not much outrage. I think that Apple will go for a two-year rhythm when it comes to major iPhone updates and that the next iPhone will consequently mostly receive a speed and RAM bump, maybe some nice software features and some cool hardware thing (NFC?) and that the case and other specs will stay the same. (Except for changing the case I don’t even know what they could conceivably do to make this a major update.) Current iPhones would obviously equally benefit from software updates (well, mostly – hopefully).
Apple will definitely continue to sell the current iPhone even after the next model has been introduced – just like they are still selling the 3GS now.
You're probably right, but I distinctly remember buying my first Apple product, which was a 3G. I just returned from Afghanistan and was stoked to have an iPhone. 31 days later (1 day post-return option), the 3GS came out and I watched with horror as all of my friends had a much better phone than I bought just weeks prior.
I got over it, but I learned that I had to keep an eye on release cycles to avoid having that happen again. I believe many Verizon iPhone users will learn the same thing.
That’s one of the downsides of having such a simple product line. Who (except for a tiny minority) even knows when HTC or Samsung release a new phone? The announcement of a new iPhone makes headlines and it’s also introduced as a replacement, not just another different model. (Technology progresses. Blaming any tech company for introducing a newer, better and cheaper model is stupid. A phone you buy today will be just as good in three years.)
My guess would be that people will not be very pissed. There will be lame jokes but not much outrage. I think that Apple will go for a two-year rhythm when it comes to major iPhone updates and that the next iPhone will consequently mostly receive a speed and RAM bump, maybe some nice software features and some cool hardware thing (NFC?) and that the case and other specs will stay the same. (Except for changing the case I don’t even know what they could conceivably do to make this a major update.) Current iPhones would obviously equally benefit from software updates (well, mostly – hopefully).
Apple will definitely continue to sell the current iPhone even after the next model has been introduced – just like they are still selling the 3GS now.