iPhone 4G actual product name unlikely to be “iPhone 4G”

When Apple launches the iPhone 4G later today it’s unlikely the product will be called “iPhone 4G” for the straightforward reason that while it is the fourth generation iPhone model, it will likely not incorporate the “4G” cellular network which AT&T (and most other U.S. carriers) have yet to build. The second generation iPhone employed the name “iPhone 3G” signifying that it was the first iPhone to take advantage of the 3G network, and the current third generation iPhone took the name “iPhone 3GS” (originally “iPhone 3G S”) to differentiate it from its predecessor while still clearly labeling it as being 3G network compatible. However, officially applying the name “iPhone 4G” to a phone which does not use a 4G network is something which in addition to possibly causing confusion would also be unlikely to get past Apple’s own legal department for fear of eventual class action.

Apple’s history over the past decade has largely been to simply refer to the current generation of a product officially by its brand name with no generational characters attached; Apple’s current iMac computer is still called “iMac” despite a number of generations having passed since the product launched in 1998; each new generation of the iPod was typically officially called merely “iPod” (with the exception of the “iPod photo”) until the iPod lineup diversified to the point that addenda such as “touch” and “nano” had to be added for clarification. Even then, each of the five generations of iPod nano has officially been known simply as “iPod nano” and so on. Apple may choose to revert to such a naming convention with the current iPhone, simply giving it the official name “iPhone” and allowing users to refer to it by the “iPhone 4G” moniker if they so choose. So long as the new iPhone isn’t officially called something unfortunate along the lines of “iPhone 4GSx” it shouldn’t have much bearing on the product’s prospects for success.

On the other hand, if Apple does choose to keep some variation of the current iPhone 3GS around as a $99 entry level model (as it did with the iPhone 3G for the past year), it wouldn’t be surprising to see the iPhone 3Gs renamed to something new, perhaps even the “iPhone classic” or some other more palatable moniker. Here’s why we’ll see the iPhone 4G (or whatever it’s actually called) this week if we’re lucky.