It has been one crazy, roller coaster of a week. A lot has went down and I'm not sure how to take some of it in. In all honesty, we should have seen the iPhone 4S coming. By that, I mean we should have known the iPhone 5 wasn't going to be announced. But we all were caught up in the moment and in the rumors. We were built up on high expectations for a device that was never even real (yet).
What ever happened to that grain of salt?
A lot of Apple keynotes are followed-up with disappointment and angry Apple fanboys (AKA fanbois) ranting and raving in defense. But this time was different in so many ways. This was the first time Apple's fearless leader was not on stage, nowhere to be found. And Tim Cook did not enter the stage with the confidence his predecessor always held. Maybe it's because he knew what we all found out a day later. (Can you blame him?) We will never know the real reason, but the entire keynote had an air of gloom and apprehension to it, which only amplified our reactions.
Samsung realized this and quickly responded. You can't blame them either, because they didn't know what we know now. They were just playing the same back-and-forth they've been playing with Apple for months now. Samsung followed the Apple keynote up with a teaser that gave us a glimpse of the upcoming Nexus, which had been rumored to make an appearance at their Unpacked CTIA conference on the 11th.
The Internet exploded ... again. People took screen captures of the teaser video, Photoshopped the image of the Nexus and pretty much revealed what the side of the device looks like. Other renders and leaks surfaced, some more believable than others. Then I woke up this morning – just three days after the teaser – to another video of the purported Galaxy Nexus (or Nexus Prime ...) and Ice Cream Sandwich caught on video? Then Samsung and Google postponed their Unpacked event with a vague explanation? It reads:
"Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced."
Some have speculated that Samsung has postponed the event out of respect for the passing of Steve Jobs. Their explanation, "it is just not the right time to announce a new product," does seem to point to the passing of Jobs. At first, it makes sense. But CTIA is still going on, and so should Samsung. Not to mention, it took them two days to announce the delay. I don't buy it.
The timing of all of this is just too weird. Something doesn't feel quite right. It's almost as if everything was planned, or something unexpected came up. The teaser, the video leak, the postponing of the event. We've seen manufacturers run controlled leaks before, and it garnered quite a response and breathed a bit of life into dying rumors of a thrice-delayed device.
For some reason, though, I just feel as if Samsung saw an opportunity to capitalize off of the disappointment of Apple's iPhone 4S announcement. Maybe they were never going to announce the device on the 11th to begin with. Or maybe they jumped on an opportunity, learned of Jobs' death and realized how it might have looked.
It's impossible to say, and for all we know, they could have simply hit a few potholes on the way to San Diego. But the timing has raised a lot of eyebrows. And we want answers, along with the Nexus (whatever it's called) and Ice Cream Sandwich already!
What do you think, pups? Am I looking into it too far? Or does the timing of this seem fishy to you guys as well? Do you think it was planned to build hype? Or a genuine delay?
Image via TheNextWeb
