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I strongly disagree. I bought a discounted iPhone 3 when the 3gs was first released. Within a year my phone was pretty worthless, because the iOS 4 updates made it so interminably slow that I stopped using it as anything other than a dumb phone (which it was never great at anyway). And, of course, I still had a full year left on a two-year contract at that point, so I was not a happy customer. Maybe the situation is better from the 3gs onward, but it sucked for me.

I have to admit that this is true and it was a very disappointing for the user-base to see that their phone got a unacceptable performance after the update. However Apple learned from it's lessons and the same thing didn't happen with 3 GS and the iPhone 4S.

At least you got updates. Many people on the Android platform never, ever see them.

Yes, iOS 4 was slow on the iPhone 3 hardware, I used that phone for years while waiting for an upgrade, but it was never worthless. It worked.

Interestingly, the original iPhone 4 is a more attractive device than the iPhone 4S because it doesn't rattle when you put it down.

I can't believe that slipped though. It's a blot on the impression of the iPhone 4S as a solid thing.

First time I heard that the iPhone 4S rattles when you put it down. Had a couple of those in my hands and it felt like a iPhone 4.

Disclaimer: I have a iPhone 4.

I have a 4S and have no idea what you're talking about.

I have a iPhone 4s and I don't know what your talking about. Can you be more specific?

Mine makes a little rattly sound, but it is from the 'bumper' case that it has on it. The contacts on the bumper make that sound for me. When I take the phone out, it is silent when I drop it from a half inch or so (other than the clunk sound the phone itself makes).

Dropping the 'bumper' by itself also induces the rattle sound.

Other than that, I have not heard of any iphone4S rattle sounds. Does yours have a 'bumper' case on it?

I have both and with or without cases, I can't replicate the rattle sound you're referring too

My 4s rattled a bit when it was new. I wasn't sure at first if the buttons were responsible for the rattling, or if it was something internal. Then I dropped it a couple of times while spinning it around in my hand to locate the side with the button I wanted to press, and that made it stop rattling for some reason. The front and back glass slabs now slide around a bit, though.

I'm more or less dumbfounded at the popular perception of the iPhone 4 as a "great" industrial design. While it's definitely a great phone, if they don't return to a curved back with the next model or otherwise provide some tactile cues that help the user sense how it's oriented as it's being withdrawn from a pocket, it'll almost be enough to send me over the fence into the Android camp. Failing to move to a bigger screen will certainly do that.

The Android clusterfuck is a completely orthogonal issue to whether last year's high end model makes for a good this year's low end model. For $450, it should be perfectly possible to build a faster phone, running current software with a better screen and better battery life than the 3GS.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the 3GS processor is costing Apple more at this point than the 4 processor due to a larger die size and outside licensing fees. Paying more for a worse processor is something that you would never do if you just built a low end phone from scratch.

edit: For example, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-GT-i9250-Smartphone-Touchscree...) is $450, is running Android 4.0, has twice the Mhz, twice the storage, 3x the resolution and 1.6 times the camera megapixels, all for the same price.

While it may be true that the old processor costs Apple more to build than the new models I strongly believe that they didn't want to test the device again.

The device worked as it is and it will work in the next year as it worked so why should we change it? No costs on this side to find. We can argue about costs and which of them would be higher but either way I think they choose the way which fits Apple best.

Apple wants to mess with new stuff and not with old already gone low-end model phones.

I don't know how non-tech-users see the nexus. I never seen one have it. I don't know why but it seem that the majority was bought by techies compared to a 3 GS which was bought from all kind of people including a lot of females which argue "I don't need the latest stuff".

You're talking as if Apple continues production on the 3GS. Do they really, or do they access old stock? I'm genuinely asking as I don't know - I had assumed they accessed old stock.

They've been selling the 3GS continuously since summer 2009. Of course they're still making new ones. Tim Cook wouldn't have his current job if in his old job he'd accidentally booked years of surplus units.

See also Anandtech's writeup of the substantial new chip fabrication improvements going into this year's version of last year's iPad: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5789/the-ipad-24-review-32nm-a...

Thanks for the reply! And the link. Good point about booking years of surplus units.