Hands-down, my favorite part of an Apple announcement’s aftermath is the brief respite we get from all the rumors. They’ll start back up soon enough, but here’s a look at what never quite panned out this time around.
(MORE: Apple Announces iPhone 4S: Old Design, New Specs, Siri Assistant)
1. The Name
Rumors of an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5 toured the circuit regularly, but everyone stuck to the iPhone 5 name until the bitter end. I personally hoped Apple might roll out two different phones at two different price points.
Bzzzt. Wrong.
2. The Design
It’s an iPhone 4 with new guts. That is all. There’s no crazy new Home button or swoopy design. It’s an iPhone 4 with new guts.
3. The 4-inch Screen
This got semi-debunked a bit earlier on, but the edge-to-edge display idea managed to keep rearing its head every now and again.
4. Apple Selling Prepaid Wireless Service via iTunes Using an iPhone That Could Jump to Any Wireless Network Based on Real-Time Pricing
Nope, though that’d still be really cool.
5. Smaller iPhone Nano
Nope, though maybe someday that’ll happen.
6. An iPhone with a Built-in Keyboard
Nope, and that’ll probably never happen.
7. New iPhone in June
Obviously not.
8. Unlocked iPhone
No, although the world-mode chip in the iPhone 4S may have had something to do with those rumors.
9. T-Mobile iPhone
No, to the point that T-Mobile came out and told people there wouldn’t be a T-Mobile iPhone days before Apple’s announcement even took place.
Stuff That Came True
Back in March, there were whispers that the new iPhone design would look a lot like the iPhone 4 design. I said “Apple’s pretty much mailing it in,” which was followed shortly thereafter by another rumor post titled “iPhone 5? Pretty Much the iPhone 4.”
Also, there were repeated reports that the next iPhone was going to be “delayed” until the fall instead of launching at Apple’s June event. Most of those reports said September at first before morphing into October.
(MORE: Spec Spat: Apple iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 4)
I started wondering about Sprint getting an iPhone back in April, but those were basically musings based on a rumored T-Mobile iPhone that never materialized. The whole Sprint thing got more solid in August, though.
And finally, as we got closer to the actual unveiling, things started taking shape a little better: no four-inch iPhone, the October 4 announcement date, the October 14 release date, and the idea that the new phone would simply be called the iPhone 4S.
Moral of the story? A rumor’s a rumor’s a rumor until it’s made official.
Speaking of that, did you hear about the iPhone 6? Er, I guess it’s still the iPhone 5, huh? Apparently it’s supposed to have an all-new design with no Home button (or a different Home button), a 4-inch screen (there’ll be a Nano version, too), Apple wireless service, a slide-out keyboard, and it’ll be sold unlocked and compatible with all four carriers, especially T-Mobile.