There was the original iPhone sans number. Then there was the second iPhone described by the standards it supported (“3G”) and a faster version of said iPhone with an added “S”.
Imagine an alternate timeline where there were two iPhones before the “3G” arrived. There would have been the following iPhones:
- iPhone
- iPhone 2
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
Apple would have been justified in calling the next iPhone either iPhone 4 (if you consider the “3GS” not a distinct version but a minor release) or iPhone 5 (because it would have been the fifth distinct model of iPhone they would have been selling).
Apple didn’t have that same choice. They couldn’t consider the iPhone 3GS a minor release because then they would have to call the next one iPhone 3. That would obviously have confused customers.
You can’t follow the iPhone 3GS with the iPhone 3. They had to call it iPhone 4.
That’s the whole reason why the “3GS” is – following Apple’s numbering scheme – not considered a minor version.
If they want to continue this pattern of not confusing their customers they have to call the next iPhone (if the want to stick to numbers) iPhone 5. The iPhone 4S is then just a minor version, not terribly distinct from the iPhone 4. It’s the iPhone 4.1.
I think this makes perfect sense and is the only solution that doesn’t confuse customers – which should be the greatest goal of any naming scheme.
"That’s the whole reason why the “3GS” is – following Apple’s numbering scheme – not considered a minor version."
That's backwards. The 3GS is not a minor version because it's not a minor version, period. The number of changes were as substantial as previously.
The numbering conundrum starts with the 3GS not the 4. They couldn't call it the 3 because it followed the 3G. They couldn't call it the 4 and it certainly couldn't be called the 4G.
When they got to the 4, "4" was both convenient (it was the 4th phone and followed a phone with a 3 in the name) and a bit sneaky (a not small number of people bought it under the impression that it was a 4G phone as well).
The next phone could logically be called a lot of things:
It could be called simply "iPhone LTE" or even "iPhone 4G".
Or it could be called the "iPhone 6" (the 6th phone running iOS 6 with an A6 processor, number of the beast lol).
It could also conceivably called the 5 (because hey they're still using "4" this year and "5" comes after "4").
Or they could abandon numbers and tech labels completely and call it the iPhone Classic (assuming they open the gates and come out with multiple new phones) or the iPhone Jagwire or whatever.
It's just a name. Their OS versions are named after felines, for heaven's sake.
The consumer couldn't care less about which generation of iPhone they are looking at. As long as it's obvious that one is newer than the other, the actual moniker matters little.
