A Smartphone by Any Other Name… Isn’t an Applicable Adage to the iPhone Line (Part 1)

Most people I know are contemplating where to sell used iPhone 3GSes, and I’m left wondering whether I should go ahead and sell my iPhone 3GS as well. We’d be selling ours to replace them with newer smartphones (the iPhone 4S, of course), and the cash we get from the resale could go a long way towards making those purchases.

Should we make the jump, though? Nifty as the new iPhone may be, it still isn’t the iPhone 5 that many of us were expecting. However, is this really a bad thing?

Image Credit: 3gvs4g.org

I am of the opinion that it isn’t.

So the iPhone 4S is just like the iPhone 4, except with an “S” at the end. I mean, they certainly look the same. How different could they be, right?

As it turns out, there are a lot of differences that separate the two smartphones. Huge differences.

One couldn’t really be blamed for this misperception, though. After all, when we have two products that have seemingly the same model name, we can’t help but think that one of the products is just a minor upgrade of the other, like a car with both hard-top and convertible variants; or worse yet, that one is exactly the same as the other except for one trivial detail, like a car sold both in “commoner blue” (for the, uh, commoner) and in “luxury gold” (for the customer with the more refined sense of taste).

And then, of course, there are those cars that are sold in both street-legal and race-optimized versions. Such is the case with the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S.

Apple apparently has a habit of giving the iPhone a new numbered name only when the look of the gadget changes. Otherwise, they just stick an “S” at the end of the last model’s name. Rest assured, though, that each subsequent release of a newer iPhone has been a release of a truly new product.

The iPhone 4’s iSight camera has 5 megapixels worth of image-capturing power. While not exactly a slouch, it makes the iPhone 4’s camera feature more of a throwaway than anything else if you consider that there are digital cameras that capture more megapixels of detail for far cheaper prices.

The iPhone 4S seeks to change the notion by increasing its iSight’s megapixel count to 8 mp, which is comparable to mid-range digital cameras. Obviously, Apple seeks to make good on its promise to have the iPhone be a pure multipurpose gadget, much like how Sony’s PlayStation 3 is considered both a gaming console and a legitimate Blu-ray player.

It isn’t just about marketing; I believe that modern gadget users are too smart for that. Rather, it’s all about how a gadget truly functions as it’s expected. The iPhone 4S may not be all that yet, but it’s a good indication that Apple is on the right track.

Be back next time for more reasons why you should sell your old iPhone and replace it with the 4S.

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