If Apple holds true to other electronics companies like Nintendo, the Spring iPhone 4 release means that Apple is looking to extend the market lifecycle of their current design.
Ah yes — Apple is set to enter the world of electronic feng shui.
For serious gamers, geeks, and gadget hounds, nothing is more critical than color-coordinating one’s electronic devices. Seriously. It is so critically important for many people to have their favorite gadget in the color that they desire that they will actually purchase a second device in a new color, just so that all of their electronics match.
Need proof? Enter the black Nintendo Wii. While Nintendo has always appropriated its trademark grey/off-white housing for its consoles, serious adult gamers pined for a shiny black version of the Wii to stand alongside their Playstations and XBoxes, so as not to upset the black-on-black monolith that is their entertainment system. The demand was so high for having a black Wii that Nintendo finally released it in the early Summer of 2010.
The nice thing about the black Wii is that it allowed Nintendo to extend the market lifecycle of their improbably successful gaming console: the black Wii offered no new functionality — just a black housing, black Wiimote, and an extra game in the box.
Apple, too is getting in on the game by offering a white version of the iPhone 4, which is slated to make its debut in the Spring of 2011. Many in the tech media as well as avid Apple fans had anticipated a much earlier release of the white iPhone 4 — perhaps as early as the Christmas season. But now that the release of the white iPhone 4 is due in Spring, what does this tell us about the iPhone 5?
It tells us that an early 2011 release of the iPhone 5 is becoming increasingly unlikely.
Why? The answer is simple: Apple is looking to extend the lifecycle of their embattled iPhone 4. Having gotten off to a rocky start, what with the release of the iPhone 4 prototype by Gizmodo as well as the debated impact of Antennagate, Apple has finally managed to put some distance between those mini scandals, and has even benefitted from the rumors surrounding the release of the iPhone 5. With iPhone fever looking to sustain itself through early 2011, it would make sense to release the white iPhone 4 in Spring and launch a kind of “iPhone 4 renaissance” before switching over to the fanfare that will accompany the announcement of the iPhone 5.
In this way, the release of the white iPhone 4 has everything to do with when the iPhone 5 comes out.
Back in August, the iPhone 5 Blog predicted that the delay in releasing the white iPhone 4 suggested an early 2011 release of the iPhone 5. But that was when the white iPhone 4 looked like it was coming out before Christmas. Our logic centers around the fact that Apple usually uses only two windows for their big product releases: late January (around the time of the Macworld trade show) and late Spring/early Summer. Given the fact that the white iPhone 4 is expected to come out in the Spring, it would make little sense to announce the iPhone 5 in late January, thus stifling any excitement about the white iPhone 4.
We’ll just have to wait and see. After all, Apple is masterful at running their hype machine. But our prediction is that we’re now a good 7 or 8 months away from an iPhone 5.
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