iPhone 5 holdup means clinging to older model was a mistakeiPhone 5 holdup means clinging to older model was a mistake

The holdup of the iPhone 5, which will see it released later than most anyone outside of Cupertino had been expecting, represents the final nail in the coffin of the idea that skipping the iPhone 4 was a wise move. Those who opted to cling to their iPhone 3G or 3GS are now left holding the bag, or more accurately, left holding outdated technology. They've spent the year missing out on the superior hardware of the iPhone 4 as well as at least part of the iOS 4 experience, even if they've installed the latter. Now they get to continue limping by with an aging iPhone even longer, even as it looks increasingly likely that the iPhone 5 will deliver a new iPhone experience entirely. Here are the top reasons why it originally seemed en vogue to skip the iPhone 4, and why none of those reasons still make sense in hindsight.

Timing: Apple's initial iPhone 4 inventory shortage saw many existing iPhone users unable to upgrade until a month or two into the iPhone era. Doing the math on a twelve month subsidized pricing cycle and not wanting to get stuck overpaying for the iPhone 5 when the time comes, they opted to skip the iPhone 4 altogether. Now, as it turns out, the iPhone 4 era will last more than a year anyway – meaning they could have bought an iPhone 4 in August and likely still been able to have bought a subsidized iPhone 5g at launch.

Controversy: All the external hype about supposed iPhone 4 antenna issues and supposed iPhone 4 scratching issues turned out to be a bunch of made-up nonsense. But it motivated a number of potential buyers to skip the iPhone 4 until the smoke cleared.

Repetition: Some folks prefer to buy the second iteration of the same model, along the lines of the notion that the iPhone 3GS represented the original iPhone 3G perfected. Many were assuming all along that the iPhone 5 would merely be a second iteration of the iPhone 4. But the delay strongly suggests a full redesign of the iPhone 5 (if it were merely an iPhone 4GS labeled as iPhone 5, there would have been no reason for a holdup). That's good news for many, but not for those who were hoping to get their hands on a second-generation iPhone 4, as it were. Here's more on the iPhone5.