Back in June I made a blog post as to what I thought the next iPhone was going to be.  It was the first in my “Crystal Ball” posts and was meant to be a self check as to how good an Apple pundant I was.  I think I’m pretty good and understanding the rationalizations and reasons behind what Apple has done, and what they would do in the future.  This was to be my gauge.  Am I as good at figuring out what apple will release as I thought I was?

So, how did I do?

The Product:
Well this one was pretty simple, and not even sure if it should be counted as a “check” in the “figured out” category.  Everyone knew apple was releasing a new iPhone.   The question was “what”.  I guessed that it wouldn’t be a “new” iPhone 5, but something more asking to be called the iPhone 4GS.  Almost got that one, as it was called a iPhone 4S… I’d consider that close enough.

The Specs:
My guess on the specs was a 1Ghz Apple A5 processor, 512MB ram, dual band Qualcomm chip, a Sony 8 MegaPixel camera, same case design, same hard drive specs, same retina display, no 4G (LTE) network, no NFC, and all released (probably late) September.  I pretty much nailed everything other than the fact in addition to the same hard drive specs, they added a 64GB model, and the fact it was early October, not late September.

I did miss a few things.  I didn’t consider them releasing a Sprint phone, nor that it would take advantage of the HSPA+ ATT network (which isn’t really 4G, even though speed wise it’s what other companies are calling 4G).  I did say it wouldn’t have LTE… so guessing it’s a wash on that prediction. At the time of the June post I didn’t know that Siri would be the headliner of the new OS, although did hint at the need for increased RAM due to “stresses” the new iOS features would put on the system.

A few other things have come out since the launch.  It is indeed a 1Ghz dual core chip…. but it’s running at 800Mhz for some reason.  Also I stated that the battery life will improve (but nothing substantial) was kinda right here.  The iPhone definitely has a better battery now that it uses more juice thanks to the dual core chip.  However the actual usefulness time-wise has changed.  The 3G talk time has increased, but (I’m guessing that due to some iOS features) the standby battery life and 3G data has actually has decreased.

So… How’d I do?
Overall… I have to say I pretty much got it right.   All the tech pundants that kept saying Apple had to release the “iPhone 5” to stay ahead of the competition, turned out to be wrong.  In fact Apple has had the best iPhone release to date with their new phone last weekend.  What I kept telling people was that Apple would release a new phone that was basically the same phone as what they had with a few performance upgrades, and tweaks.  It didn’t pay for most people to wait till the fall to get the new phone unless you wanted the few things that might be available in iOS5 for that phone the same way that the iPhone 3GS had over the 3G (in this case turned out to be Siri).  Otherwise made more sense to hold off till next year.

The next “BIG” iPhone update would come next year (which is still to be seen but pretty much a good guess at this point).   iOS5 was the star of this year’s iPhone release (as I guessed) and the fact it’s available for multiple carriers for the same phone, were the two things I ended with. Guessing I can count that as a win.

What did you think was going to be the next iPhone?  How did you do?  Have any other future Apple predictions you’d like me to make? Leave your comments below.