iphone 3gs to be discontinued when the iphone 5 is releasedThe iPhone 3GS has had a great run, with many users singing its praises even today. But all indications are that the 3GS will be officially retired once the iPhone 5 debuts this year.
It can be argued that the iPhone 3GS ushered in the modern smartphone experience as we know it. While the original iPhone and 3G laid the groundwork, it was the performance level of the 3GS that set the new benchmark for what we have come to expect from smartphones. Though the iPhone 4, 4S, and a host of Android smartphones outpace the 3GS now in performance, it is telling that, some three years after its release, you can still purchase an iPhone 3GS.
But the trusty iPhone 3GS will most likely be finally fading into the ether.
An article from Gotta Be Mobile notes that: “We think that Apple may be killing off the iPhone 3GS because it has told developers to only send screenshots of apps with a Retina Display resolution or higher.” this of course would mean that Apple is not looking to address the software of the iPhone 3GS and its 480 x 320 display.
If you’ve been a steady reader of this blog, then you will recall that we discussed at length the retirement of the iPhone 3GS last Summer, with fire sales and promotions seemingly marking its end. With many assuming that Apple was going to release both an iPhone 5 and 4S, the assumption was that there would be no room for the 3GS — it would be improbable to imagine four iPhone models being offered at the same time.
Once the iPhone 5 debuts in 2012, we will have finally crossed that 4 model threshold. It’s hard to imagine the 3GS and the iPhone 5 coexisting in the Apple catalog. And not only because of performance disparity: there have been reports suggesting that the new iPhone 5 form factor could harken back to the more rounded, convex aesthetics of the 3GS. As a result, Apple might want to ensure that users don’t see the iPhone 5 as overly derivative of the 3GS when compared side by the side.
Regardless of whether or not the iPhone 3GS survives through 2012, there is no doubt that it marks the beginning of Apple’s historic rise in developing the leading design for the smartphone market.
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