iPhone 5 delay has holdouts re-eyeing Verizon, white iPhone 4

Hindsight is supposed to be 20-20, but those who skipped the iPhone 4 in 2010 or the Verizon iPhone in early 2011 with the expectation of being able to buy an iPhone 5 in June are now scratching their heads and still attempting to put together the puzzle pieces in order to figure out whether passing on the iPhone 4 was a mistake and whether taking the plunge now would be a corrective action or only compound their original (possible) mistake. Welcome to Apple, a company which does not discuss future unannounced products (except when it wants to), and has no intention of telling you when the iPhone 5 will see a release date (except that it kind of just did). Now it's up to you to figure out whether you regret taking a pass, and whether you can fix it.

By any measure, Apple wants you to buy an iPhone 4 now instead of waiting. That's why it pre-announced the white iPhone 4 release via Twitter. That's why it's releasing a white iPhone 4 at all. It's not just about pushing a sought-after new color to market in the hopes of motivating people to take the plunge. It's about telegraphing the fact that the iPhone 5 is clearly coming later than expected. Look at it this way: the white iPhone 4 is only a few days old, and yet June is three weeks away. Anyone who thinks Apple released the white iPhone 4 just for the sake of turning around and burying it that quickly is probably naive enough to end up on the wrong end of the buying spectrum one way or the other. So how long will the iPhone 4 era continue? A season sounds about right. Our guess is early September. But that's just a guess, one you can act on if you like, but one which we're not sure about so you shouldn't be either.

It all comes back to whether you now think you blew it by not buying an iPhone 4 earlier on when you had the chance. The "reasons" many folks skipped the iPhone 4 (supposed antenna issue, supposed scratching issue) turned out to have never existed in the first place. Other issues which were real, such as the proximity sensor bug, were cleaned up in software updates. And the iPhone 4′s original lack of Verizon compatibility and a white noodle have since been cleaned up with subsequent hardware releases. In other words, the iPhone 4 is now everything you wish it had been at launch – plus you've learned that it never was a lot of things that detractors had claimed. But is it too late now?

The iPhone 5 will be here before the year is over. Buying an iPhone 4 now means that you'll either have to pay through the nose for the iPhone 5g when it arrives (thanks to unsubsidized pricing), or you'll have until late in the iPhone 5 era to nab one at standard pricing, or just skip the iPhone 5 altogether. Is that worth it just so you can get your hands on an iPhone 4 now? That's your choice to make. Here's more on iPhone5.