No iPhone 5 at WWDC this year possibly

[zerocool84]

They could easily get "4G" on AT&T going easily this year. HSDPA+ is already pretty fast but LTE is the big problem. WiMAX and LTE both seem to kill battery life.

 

[s44]

AT&T claims to have implemented HSPA+ all over, but the protocol stuff doesn't matter at all without the improved backhaul -- which they're just starting on. It gets pretty fast where they DO roll it out, though.

 

[boomhower]

I'm not buying it. I say it's just BS to get people to keep buying the iPhone 4. With all the new dual core high end Android phones coming out and all the iPhone contracts coming up for renewal they are risking way to many sales by delaying until the fall. I don't see it happening, especially for 4G.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I'm not buying it. I say it's just BS to get people to keep buying the iPhone 4. With all the new dual core high end Android phones coming out and all the iPhone contracts coming up for renewal they are risking way to many sales by delaying until the fall. I don't see it happening, especially for 4G.

You could be right. I was going to buy the next iPhone, hopefully in June, but the first thing that popped in my head was 'damn maybe I should just buy a used 3GS or 4!'. I'm just tired of the EVO. Love the experience... other than the battery. Granted it's 100000x better than what I got out of the Pre.

 

[purbeast0]

if there is no ip5 announced this year, wonder what all the people claiming "people who buy ip4 on verizon are stupid with ip5 coming out in 5 months" will run to now.

 

[MoxJr]

time to buy iphone4

 

[pm]

Makes me glad that I upgraded to an iPhone 4 last month. I like the high rez screen, the slightly better reception, the slight speed boost - but what I really love about it is the battery life. With my iPhone 3GS at the end of the day, I'd get home with battery indicator as a thin read line and within about 20 minutes of getting home, it would auto-shut off. With the iPhone 4, I get home with half the battery left - I can almost go two days without charging. Anyway, I was up for upgrade last month and I figured why not - the 3GS battery was tough if I had anything to do in the evening other than put it in the charger right away. Now that I might have had to survive all summer with my 3GS... I'm glad that I switched.

As far as this rumor, I'll believe it when I see it in the Wall Street Journal. They seem to have the direct conduit into Apple. It might make sense to do a big product launch all together to be ready before Christmas... although it would be tough logistically... and it would make their financials very cyclical... I guess we'll see.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'm curious to the new iOS changes though.

 

[Aikouka]

Makes me glad that I upgraded to an iPhone 4 last month. I like the high rez screen, the slightly better reception, the slight speed boost - but what I really love about it is the battery life. With my iPhone 3GS at the end of the day, I'd get home with battery indicator as a thin read line and within about 20 minutes of getting home, it would auto-shut off.

You sure your battery wasn't just beginning to wear down on the 3GS? Most people charge their phones at whatever battery percent they want, but last I heard, that's not a good thing to do to a lithium ion battery.

 

[gorcorps]

You sure your battery wasn't just beginning to wear down on the 3GS? Most people charge their phones at whatever battery percent they want, but last I heard, that's not a good thing to do to a lithium ion battery.

That's exactly the opposite of what's good (supposedly) about Li ion batteries. Unlike nicad and all the other rechargables, li-ion has no memory so recharging before it's fully discharged shouldn't hurt it. It's recommended to do a full discharge and recharge once in a while, but that's only to reset the battery capacity system.

What they don't like is partial charges, so if you DO plug it in you should make sure it charges fully. Don't make a habit of doing mini charges whenever you feel like it.

 

[zerocool84]

I'm curious to the new iOS changes though.

Well I think maybe they finally might get a decent notification system going. They've had the WebOS guy for a while now and I'm surprised they haven't changed their notifications yet but if they're going to focus on software, I think that might be one of the big ones they change this year.

 

[EightySix Four]

That's exactly the opposite of what's good (supposedly) about Li ion batteries. Unlike nicad and all the other rechargables, li-ion has no memory so recharging before it's fully discharged shouldn't hurt it. It's recommended to do a full discharge and recharge once in a while, but that's only to reset the battery capacity system.

What they don't like is partial charges, so if you DO plug it in you should make sure it charges fully. Don't make a habit of doing mini charges whenever you feel like it.

Lithium based batteries actually hate to be fully discharged, it stresses the battery quite a bit.

 

[pm]

Right. Lithium based batteries don't like to be fully discharged - the electrolytic starts to break down which then leads to gas formation or "puffy cells".

As far as the battery life on my 3GS being poor due to the battery wearing out - this is probably true. It was ~18 months old, it was definitely wearing out. If I'd replaced the battery, the battery life would have been better and probably I'd be happier with it - although I don't ever remember the 3GS having battery life like the iPhone 4 does. OTOH, I sold my 3GS for $325 on Ebay, bought a new iPhone 4 for $218, and pocketed money on the upgrade... I'm content.

 

[Aikouka]

That's exactly the opposite of what's good (supposedly) about Li ion batteries. Unlike nicad and all the other rechargables, li-ion has no memory so recharging before it's fully discharged shouldn't hurt it. It's recommended to do a full discharge and recharge once in a while, but that's only to reset the battery capacity system.

What they don't like is partial charges, so if you DO plug it in you should make sure it charges fully. Don't make a habit of doing mini charges whenever you feel like it.

Ahh, my bad. It sounds like I had it the opposite way... charge all the way instead of drain all the way! Although, what exactly does the "battery capacity system" affect and what would resetting it change?

 

[gorcorps]

In not really sure exactly how it works... I just remember reading that after a while the battery indicator of your device can be "off" and a full drain will fix it. It's could all be BS, but I've seen it posted all over the place so there might be something to it.

 

[KentState]

From a profits perspective, I wonder how this could affect the company. Putting out new phones quickly has kept a certain demand curve for the last few years.

 

[TheStu]

Bear in mind that this doesn't preclude them from releasing the phone the day, week, or month after WWDC. It also isn't an official release from Apple, so they might still unveil the phone there anyway.

They managed to release a new iPod every year for 6 or 7 years before the whole hard drive based device thing ran out of steam. They are on generation 6 of the Nano, and the iPhone is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) moneymaker they have right now.

 

[basslover1]

I was actually looking forward to the iPhone 5. I've been using Android for about 1.5 years now but with the rate that Android powered phones are coming out I figure they'll have to do something huge to last a full year on the same hardware.

Though, a good overhaul of iOS might be just the thing needed to grab my attention again.

 

[zerocool84]

I was actually looking forward to the iPhone 5. I've been using Android for about 1.5 years now but with the rate that Android powered phones are coming out I figure they'll have to do something huge to last a full year on the same hardware.

Though, a good overhaul of iOS might be just the thing needed to grab my attention again.

They definitely won't do an overhaul of iOS just add bigger features. It could definitely use one but they can't do it because it'd cut a lot of the userbase they already have. People buy multiple iOS devices because they're all exactly the same experience and it helps to have consistency across every device they make so people who have an iPhone feel right at home on an iPad or iPod Touch. You know exactly what you're getting and Apple hardly ever does anything drastic on the software front once they have something going.

 

[boomhower]

From a profits perspective, I wonder how this could affect the company. Putting out new phones quickly has kept a certain demand curve for the last few years.

Big time. The market is getting to the point of starting to get saturated. Without upgrade sales they are going to suffer. Yeah, the general public is typically stupid but most people know new iphones come out in the summer. The closer to summer you get the more sales are going to dry up. I just can't see them waiting beyond June, there are just to many very nice Android phones coming out. Personally I hope they don't. I'm jumping ship to Verizon and want to see what the iPhone 5 has before signing on for two years and a bigger screen has to be part of the bargain. I will not buy an iPhone 4 as 3.5" just isn't going to cut it for me, I don't care how high the resolution is.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I will not buy an iPhone 4 as 3.5" just isn't going to cut it for me, I don't care how high the resolution is.

Amen. I really need to replace my 3GS (its slowly dying), but I refuse to pay for a phone with such a small screen after being spoiled by the Droid Xs of the world.

As far as I am concerned for the first time since the first iPhone was released Apple is behind the market. No other iPhone generation needed an upgrade as bad as the iPhone 4 does.

Personally I couldn't care about 4G. It is a battery eating monster that delivers speeds that is hard to enjoy on a cell phone. Its main benefit (outside video calls) is to tether those speeds to a real computer, but I know good ole ATT will go after those who do that.

So just take the iPhone 4, stick in that fancy dual core iPad 2 CPU, slap on a 4 inch screen, and give us the upgrade we have waiting for this June!!!!!

 

[Ns1]

Big time. The market is getting to the point of starting to get saturated. Without upgrade sales they are going to suffer. Yeah, the general public is typically stupid but most people know new iphones come out in the summer. The closer to summer you get the more sales are going to dry up. I just can't see them waiting beyond June, there are just to many very nice Android phones coming out. Personally I hope they don't. I'm jumping ship to Verizon and want to see what the iPhone 5 has before signing on for two years and a bigger screen has to be part of the bargain. I will not buy an iPhone 4 as 3.5" just isn't going to cut it for me, I don't care how high the resolution is.

As a 3gs'er who is due for an upgrade in June, I'll wait for the 5. I'm so heavily invested in apple apps it doesn't make sense to switch.

 

[s44]

So just take the iPhone 4, stick in that fancy dual core iPad 2 CPU, slap on a 4 inch screen, and give us the upgrade we have waiting for this June!!!!!

Not a bad idea. Call it the iPhone 4D.

 

[zerocool84]

The closer to summer you get the more sales are going to dry up. I just can't see them waiting beyond June, there are just to many very nice Android phones coming out.

It's more than just Android, HP is finally coming out with their new WebOS phones, more Windows phones, competition is heating up even more and I don't think they have the luxury to wait that long since with even more competition coming out their market share is getting to shrink even more. They're definitely not hurting for money so they're one of the few companies that can afford to wait.

Maybe we're not getting a new top end iPhone but a lower end one which we know they could definitely use.

 

[SolidSnake42]

Not a bad idea. Call it the iPhone 4D.

But considering how 4G is all the rage, probably even more so than dual-cores, and if they decide not to put 4G into the phone, I think sales might falter a bit for missing such a big feature.