iPhone 5 ... I mean 4S w/ iOS 5

[The Mimm]

It's going to sellout...hard.

Actually that's not surprising either.

I'm just saying, the apple never falls far from the tree.

*ducks off stage before the rotten veg can start flying*

[Jer]

Dolphin,

I expected a 4s, and hoped for a 5 as well. In that scenario, the 4s replaces the 4, but drops $100 and becomes the budget option—presumably cheaper to produce thanks to manufacturing refinements—and the 5 becomes the new standard. Notably, off-contract, the 4s sells for $100 less in Canada than the 4 originally did.

My take is not "I expected exactly this" so much as "This is what I would expect from a product called 4s". I would expect the iPhone 5 (or whatever they call it, because precedent would make it the iPhone 6 now) to have some major, industry-leading hardware innovation that Apple can really sell.

Whether or not LTE/4G is *that* feature, or one amongst several, my guess would be that it played a role in delaying a more major hardware overhaul. AT&T has been slower on the rollout than expected, and the chip miniaturization is pretty abysmally behind—engadget published an article this morning saying an iPhone-usable chip may not be available until second-quarter 2012, though it was expected by third-quarter 2011.

Incidentally, with regard to one of your other comments, iPhone 4:iOS 4 is the first time the names of both sides of that equation have ever lined up—I don't think anyone would be shocked if iOS 6 came out around the same time that the iPhone 5 (or whatever-it's-called) eventually emerges.

[Dromos_GHG]

I think everyone hoped Apple would skip the 4s and go right into the 5–and who knows, maybe that was on the table at some point and they just couldn't make it work. The year-and-a-half wait for a simple spec bump may indicate that plans for the 5 fell through and Apple just needed to get something out this year.

Also factor in that factory fire in China earlier this year, and the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown and the deck might have been really stacked against Apple.
The Japanese disasters have had quite a few expected, as well as unexpected effects on the tech world and related industries. Chip shortages, development downtime, and whatnot...

[Elomin Sha]

and the Japanese ... nuclear meltdown and the deck might have been really stacked against Apple.
Chip shortages, development downtime, and whatnot...

I'll take whatnot to mean 'still no Godzilla'...shame.