Stephen Hackett said:

Apple has released an iPhone every summer since 2007, except for this year. WWDC came and went with no new hardware.

Since then, many people have claimed — including myself — that Apple can’t release a spec-only update to the iPhone 4, since the device has been on the market for 16 months. It would be a let-down, a disaster, a failure.

This, of course, is just based on our own expectations. We expect that — given the extra time — Apple’s hardware team has whipped up something shiny and new, far removed from the iPhone 4s we’ve all been carrying around for so long.

Whatever Apple announces tomorrow, some people are bound to be disappointed. That’s what expectations do when they grow out of control. Apple doesn’t owe us anything. Remember that as you pre-order your new phone tomorrow.

Thing is, I love the iPhone 4 form factor. Not just like, love. I love how it feels and its heft and its total lack of tapered edges. It’s a magical slab of glass. Like something from a science fiction movie. Like the illicit love child of a new iMac and an old titanium PowerBook. It is timeless and classic. I would mourn its passing.

Of course, I know I have it bad and will end up ordering the next iPhone because it is the next iPhone (all the while holding up the tattered fig leaf of  “professional necessity” to justify my actions), but I don’t want the next iPhone to look like anything other than the old iPhone. If the rumors are true and the iPhone 5 is a mirage and the iPhone 4S is the spitting image of the iPhone 4, I will be overjoyed.

Now if it only had a larger screen…