Thứ Ba, 17 tháng 5, 2011

iPhone 5 washed out by official white iPhone 4 tomorrow, Verizon

iPhone 5 washed out by official white iPhone 4 tomorrow, Verizon

The iPhone 5 just got washed down the drain in a cloud of white smoke, for now. If it wasn't the February 2011 rollout of the Verizon iPhone 4 which pushed the iPhone 5 past its expected summer debut, it was the April 2011 launch of the white iPhone 4 which did the trick. Apple announced today that the white iPhone 4 will go on sale tomorrow, and as usual the company said nothing in the process about the future of the iPhone 5 or any timetable for its eventual release date. But this time around, Apple didn't have to say anything; the writing is clearly on the wall. And for those who've been waiting for the iPhone 5, it ain't pretty.

Here's what we know for sure: this is the third arrival of the iPhone 4. First there was the original last summer. Then there was the Verizon version, almost the same model but with a Verizon-compatible antenna technology. And now we've got both existing iPhone 4 iterations coming in white, giving the iPhone 4 a third act. Whether it's been the plan all along or this has been a more recent development, it's clear now that Apple is looking to keep the iPhone 4 vital (or at least viable) in terms of new sales for awhile longer. And now the common sense conjecture: if the iPhone 5 were still coming in June at Apple's WWDC conference, as might have been hoped, it wouldn't be rolling out a white iPhone 4 a mere month and a half before the launch of the iPhone 5. Which means you can forget about an iPhone 5 in June or likely any time during the rest of the summer. In other words, think fall 2011.

The silver lining is that Apple rarely introduces new hardware products any later in the calendar year than the first half of September. So assuming it still plans to do an iPhone 5 in 2011, you're probably looking at no more than another four-plus months of waiting. That's a tough blow for those who decided to skip the Verizon iPhone 4, or even skip the entire iPhone 4 era, in the expectation that the iPhone 5 would be here in early summer. But at least there's strong hope that it'll be here by Apple's own traditionally self imposed September deadline, as opposed to waiting for something like November which would sting even more. The question now, for those who've been waiting, is this: now that the iPhone 4 is not only available on Verizon but also available in white, and now that the iPhone 5 is clearly not coming til late this year, will you go ahead an join the iPhone 4 party after all – or will you continue waiting for the iPhone 5 no matter how long it takes? Here's more on the iPhone5.

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