Earlier this morning, an explosion went off in the Twitterverse. Did you hear it? Plenty of places covered it, about the source of the explosion. You saw it, right? Heard about it, maybe? It was probably the biggest bit of news that hit the wire, and it wasn't even really news.
That's right. I'll admit it. Apple releasing invitations to an event more than a week in the future isn't really news. Worth mentioning, yes, but nothing to freak out over.
That didn't stop the masses, though. Everyone was all excited about September 12th, when it's expected that Apple will unveil the next version of the iPhone. But, now this is where it gets really interesting, not everyone seems to be all that excited about what the new iPhone may be called.
That seems to be where most of the brouhaha was coming from, really. Yes, people were excited about Apple unveiling a new iPhone, but most of the outcry was focused on one aspect of the invite: the 5. As you can see from the image above, there's a very distinct number 5 cast as a shadow below the 12.
What does that mean? Well, it probably means that the new iPhone is going to be called the iPhone 5. Or, more specifically, that's what it could mean. No one except Apple knows what the final name for the product is going to be, but if we're going to make attempts at a guess, that shadowed five would be a big finger pointed in the "iPhone 5" direction.
Why is that an issue? I'm serious. The more and more I saw people actually freaking out over the expected name, the more I just couldn't fathom why I was seeing what I was seeing. Yes, technically this is indeed the sixth generation iPhone. And, yes, that would mean that the iPhone 5 is the sixth-generation iPhone running iOS 6. It's odd, admittedly, but it isn't a deal breaker in the slightest.
Not for the consumer. The iPhone 4S? That was the fifth-generation iPhone running iOS 5. So, there's that. I asked 15 different people today, all of them just regular consumers, a simple question.
"If you had to guess the next name for the iPhone, what do you think it would be?" Their answer was pretty straightforward: iPhone 5. Some told me it was because it made sense after 4S, only because they went to the iPhone 4 after the iPhone 3GS. Others just pointed out that the next big update would have to be 5, since the last big update was 4.
I'm not going to say that every consumer is like this, but I will suggest that most of them don't really care what the new iPhone is called. It may cause a problem if Apple decided to call it the iPhone Galaxy or something like that, but I imagine if Apple does indeed decide to go with iPhone 5, the general consumer isn't going to care much at all.
Not as long as the phone is worth buying, anyway.
I don't think I've ever actively told myself that I wasn't going to buy a phone because of its name. I'm not even sure that's been a brief thought in mind mind. Why does it matter? I mean, I'm buying the phone for the features, right? If the features speak for themselves, what does the name matter? Does it?
That may be put to the test if a high-end device ever gets released called the Unicorn or something, I suppose. "Here's what's next from HTC! Meet the Unicorn!"
Ah, now that would be interesting.
Okay, but seriously, Dear Reader, can you tell me why you think there's such a backlash over the expected iPhone name? Why is it a big deal if Apple chooses to call it the iPhone 5? Do you care? Are you going to buy it anyway? Or, are you going to skip it entirely, no matter what it's called? Let me know what you think.
