Apple ditches iPhone 3G S

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 23 Jun 2009 at 09:20

Apple has taken the extraordinary decision to slightly rename its flagship iPhone.

The iPhone 3GS was originally launched with a space between the G and the S. The company has now decided to do away with the needless space, renaming the product 3GS.

In a rather Orwellian move, the company has sneakily amended all the early press releases about the product on its website, so that they now bear the new nomenclature.

Apple has made no public announcement on the reasons for the name change and the company wasn't available for comment at the time of publication.

Many publications - including PC Pro - had decided to ignore the extra space anyway, which may explain why Apple has decided to do likewise.

However, a Google search reveals 12.1 million hits for "iPhone 3G S" and only 8.3 million for "iPhone 3GS", suggesting the majority had decided to follow Apple's original branding.

The decision could, however, prove more than a little irritating for companies selling iPhone 3GS accessories, who may have already issued printed materials and products with the old naming convention - although consumer confusion is likely to be minimal.

Apple claims it sold more than a million iPhone 3GS handsets in the first three days the device was on sale. Six million existing iPhone customers have also downloaded the iPhone 3.0 software upgrade.