iPhone 5 Release: Was iPhone 4S a Failed iPhone 5 Experiment?
Though the popularity of the iPhone 4S is steadily increasing, many Apple enthusiasts are still wondering what happened to the iPhone 5 that they were expecting.
Prior to the release of the iPhone 4S, when there was still hope that an iPhone 5 would be released, reports indicated that the iPhone 5 had an "unprecedented demand," more so than any other Apple smartphone.
While rumors about the iPhone 4S also circulated, many still had hope that the iPhone 5 would be the premier Apple smartphone of 2011.
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9to5Mac proposes, with clues from iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn and other Apple insiders, that a number of setbacks in the production of the iPhone 5 prompted the company to only release the iPhone 4S this year.
Commentators suggest that the fifth-generation iPhone is essentially an iPhone 5 on the inside and iPhone 4 on the outside.
Early this year, the late Steve Jobs was then headlining production of the iPhone 5, his final major project at Apple, CNET details.
Plans for the teardrop design of the iPhone 5 were ahead of schedule and prototypes were testing well.
In the mean while, the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 were to be unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in June.
However Apple began to realize in February that it would not be able to get beta versions of the new OS out to developers by April, in time for the conference.
At this time Siri was only at a beta stage as well, and was only available in three languages.
The delays in production of iOS 5 and Siri projected that the OS would not be ready for unveiling until October, instead of April as planned.
Apple decided to speed up the hardware production of the iPhone 5 and planned to attempt a dual release with the iPhone 4S.
The iPhone 4S would stand as the “flagship phone for 2011” and the iPhone 5 would be its low cost alternative, according to 9to5Mac.
With this plan, Apple began to encounter problems with fitting the updated software into the proposed “thinner and lighter” chassis of the iPhone 5.
“The touch-screen devices are so thin. It’s really difficult to install so many components into the iPhones,” WSJ quoted the founder of Foxconn, Terry Gou as saying.
Apple and Foxconn then began to realize that the number of iPhone 5’s that needed to be produced in order to meet a holiday demand was not possible.
By September, Apple had decided to release the iPhone 4S with the original iPhone 4 chassis and what possibly are software updates originally meant for the iPhone 5.
A source at Foxconn has proposed that the next iPhone will release in summer 2012.
Other sources suggest a summer 2013 release.
