iPhone 5 set for makeover, release delay avoids interstitial status

The only thing worse than having to wait until the fall for the iPhone 5 would have been receiving it in June only to find that it was little more than a warmed over iPhone 4 with a new number attached to it. The iPhone 5 delay, then, could be the best news possible for those looking forward to its release. After all, this buys Apple the time it needs to finish the real iPhone 5, the one with the full makeover inside and out, and not the iPhone 4S with the "iPhone 5″ name which Apple would have needed to sheepishly float out there if it had stuck to its guns and released it this summer. In other words, through the holdup, the iPhone 5 gets saved from being a mere interstitial model en route to the iPhone 6. But what does this all mean? Here's what the iPhone 5, thanks to being held back to the fall and giving Apple time to take it all the way, could end up offering.

Slim goodbody: Remember how Apple made the iPad 2 just a bit thinner but rounded down the edges which made it feel incredibly sleeker than the original? Apple could do the same with the iPhone 5, grinding down the thickly squared bezeled sides of the iPhone 4 in favor of a model which feels svelter in your hand.

4G era: You know that 4G LTE technology which Verizon and AT&T keep touting but neither carrier can manage to roll out in more than a handful of locations? 4G may not be the reason the iPhone 5 is being held up, but the delay could increase the odds that Apple ultimately includes 4G in the iPhone 5 when the time comes. After all, by then, more than a few random city blocks may actually have 4G LTE access.

iOS 5: Half of what made the iPhone 4 the iPhone 4 was what the accompanying iOS 4 brought with it. As it stands, iOS 5 apparently isn't coming til the fall. With the iPhone 5 looking like it'll arrive in the same delayed timeframe, that means iPhone 5 users won't have to initially settle for being stuck running the same old iOS 4.x they had on their last iPhone. Here's more on the iPhone5.