This time round we had more rumours than ever. What with “lost phones”, leaked cases and factory inside information, the world convinced itself that today would see the launch of an all-new iPhone 5, possibly aluminium and carrying styling cues from the MacBook Air. As usual, the rumours were over-hyped and it is a tribute to Apple’s traditional secrecy that no one really knew what was going to happen before ten this morning.
In a normal situation we would be blown away by the iPhone 4S. There’s a lot to lust after, not least the Siri personal assistant. But it is business as usual on the screen size and general form factor. Even the glass back remains, when most people thought it would be changed.
That would be in a normal situation. But expectations had been raised so high with all the rumours that even the admirable 4S comes as something of an anti-climax. We will have to wait probably another ten months before the true iPhone 5 makes its appearance. Inevitably many iPhone fans will be disappointed this morning.
Equally, there will be a legion of disappointed case manufacturers out there. Logically, though, retaining a form factor over two generations of phone makes a lot of sense because no one wants to buy new accessories every year. A two-generation form factor happened with the 3G and 3GS and we now know it is happening with the 4 and 4S. At least we now know where we stand and we’re saved the cost of another new case.