The iPhone 4S IS the iPhone 5.

I realize there were (and still are) people who got excited last summer about a teardrop shaped iPhone with a larger display. It became known as the “iPhone 5”. Since that wasn’t what Apple released in October, there are still quite a few people referring to the 6th generation iPhone as the iPhone 5. I can only guess that many of these people were disappointed by the 4S. Do they see the phone as a mere update, an intermediate device not worthy to stand on its on? I don’t know but it’s incredibly annoying.

So let’s get it straight. This is the simplest way I can eliminate the controversy. If Apple named the 4th generation iPhone the iPhone 4 then by their logic the 4S IS the iPhone 5. Whether or not you view it that way in your own head is inconsequential. Apple sees the 5th generation iPhone as the iPhone 5. Still confused? The 1st generation iPhone was the iPhone 1; iPhone 3G was the iPhone 2; and the iPhone 3GS was the iPhone 3.

It appears that the confusion over whether or not the iPhone 4S is the iPhone 5 or not can be traced back to the teardrop design that was rumored to be released last fall. Allow me to address that as well. Just because the media was referring to that device as the iPhone 5 does not make it so. That was an unnamed, unreleased prototype. Since Apple released something else instead, that device became the iPhone 5. No one knows if this prototype will ever be released.

You might be asking yourself, “Well then what do we call that device?” I don’t know but please stop calling it the iPhone 5. It’s inaccurate.