iPhone 5 is sixth generation, but likely to retain “5″ moniker

by Beatweek Staff

If the iPhone 4S is the fifth generation iPhone, then what is the iPhone 5? That’s the question for Apple marketing execs to chew over from now until the device’s launch later this year, as their upcoming sixth generation smartphone has already been popularly branded “iPhone 5″ even as a handful of skeptics point out that such a moniker would be outside of standard naming conventions. Skipping to “iPhone 6″ to accurately reflect the generational number could cause even more confusion, however, as most consumers would simply wonder where the iPhone 5 went and whether Apple might be trying to pull something. Largely lost amid all this pre-launch debate is the fact that Apple has rarely adhered to iPhone generational numbers thus far…

The first iPhone was merely called “iPhone” without any numerical suffix. The second iPhone saw Apple using the name “iPhone 3G” to denote the addition of 3G networking, and then the third iPhone went with the name “3GS” which was the first time an iPhone had the correct generational number in its name – and it was essentially by mere happenstance. Not until the fourth generation iPhone did Apple finally see fit to make a point of using the correct number in the name, with the “iPhone 4″ moniker being the first time Apple used a number in an iPhone’s name without also attaching a letter. Currently Apple is employing the “iPhone 4S” name for the fifth generation model; calling it “iPhone 5″ wouldn’t have worked because the 4S is physically nearly identical to its predecessor. That leaves Apple to now decide whether the generation model should indeed be called iPhone 5. And while such a move would be flawed in a strictly logical sense, it may be a no-brainer for Apple nonetheless.