Fun Size Bytes

~ UPDATE: (2012-09-06) The phone has been sold. I’m leaving this post here because I still think the points it makes are solid. ~

frageelay:

Does anyone want to buy my dad’s Verizon black 16GB iPhone 4S?

Like-new condition, was hardly used over the three months he owned it, comes with original box & charger.

Gazelle says $250, but they’re selling on ebay from that and up toward $400 (I checked closed auctions).

Askbox me and make an offer if you’re interested. We’re not interested in getting rich here. It’s a perfectly good item that’s sitting around unused. The dough goes to my mom.

Thanks, nerds!

In my opinion, Apple’s iPhones have gone like this:

One generation is a “New release with new features and design changes” and then the next release is “Pretty much the same thing as before, except a lot better.”

That’s been true of the 3G vs the 3GS and the 4 vs the 4S.

Apple is expected to announce the next iPhone (let’s call it the “iPhone 5”) soon, and I would expect that the “5” will be much more different from the iPhone 4S than the 4S was from the 4.

But with any sort of new design and changes, there are possibilities of problems. If they have changed the size (which seems likely) then all of the old cases won’t work. If they change the dock connector (also expected) then all of your old chargers will not work either.

Which is to say that if you want an iPhone, I would be more interested in the 4S than the 5. The 4S is pretty amazing. I’ve had it since it came out, and have been thoroughly pleased with it.

I’m sure the “5” will be great, but I don’t anticipate much envy. I still have another year on my contract, so I won’t be geting the 5, but I bet the “5S” (or whatever next year’s model is called) will be an improvement and refinement of the 5.

(By the way, I see the same pattern holding true with the iPad so far. The iPad 1 was a great device, but had some drawbacks, mostly due to limited RAM which made it feel slow sometimes. The iPad 2 was awesome, it fixed the RAM problem and was overall a great improvement. The iPad 3 has the retina screen, but it too feels like it doesn’t have enough RAM, and I suspect the iPad “4” will feel like a huge improvement, even if the tech press ends up disappointed that it isn’t “different enough” from the iPad 3. Of course everyone will probably be talking about the rumored “iPad Mini” so that will probably distract them.)

Anyway, for anyone wondering “Why would you buy an iPhone 4S when Apple is going to announce the 5 soon?” my response would be “Because the 4S is a proven, awesome device, and while the 5 is going to be what everyone is talking about, it will probably also have some issues and drawbacks. (These issues, I should clarify, will probably be minimal, but will be completely overblown in the press.)

I don’t have any vested interest in the buying or selling of Toni’s iPhone, this is just my independent assessment, as well as a reblog for the folks who might have missed it yesterday.