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Has Apple stated any meaning for the 'S' in the iPhone product designations '4S' or '3GS'? Does it mean the same thing in both product names?

orome
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    I would say that this is the internal Apple designation for evolutionary designs, which this one was. This seems to be the case, anyways, given merely two examples. – jcolebrand Oct 06 '11 at 04:00
  • @Kalamane: Inappropriate question, or not? I'm getting mixed signals. Or are there other reasons for the downvote? – orome Oct 06 '11 at 04:10
  • I haven't downvoted your question (Like I said, I can't), but if you hover your mouse over the downvote button you read: "This question does not show any research effort" – Kalamane Oct 06 '11 at 04:15
  • @Kalamane: Can you given an example of what that would look like for such a straightforward question? (Seriously, if there's an expected form, I'd like to know what it is.) – orome Oct 06 '11 at 04:23
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    @raxacoricofallapatorius One potential problem is that there's no non-speculative answer. Apple didn't announce an explanation, so all we can do is guess. Questions that involve "guess why Apple did this" usually don't do well here. – Daniel Oct 06 '11 at 04:31
  • @Daniel: I didn't see that as a problem in the guidelines, and didn't know if that was the final answer when I asked. So: no questions that might lack a definitive answer? – orome Oct 06 '11 at 04:35
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    I certainly don't make the rules; I'm just trying to help you understand why you're not getting a high upvote score here. Upvotes tend to go to questions that people consider a "good fit" for the site. Downvotes tend to go to questions that people consider a bad fit for the site. Sometimes the moderators close them. It's not always obvious at the time one asks which category a question falls into. I've had questions that I thought were good at the time I asked them end up downvoted or closed. The point of voting is gathering collective wisdom about how well a question fits the site. – Daniel Oct 06 '11 at 04:43
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    Daniel's pretty much bang on. This is not public knowledge. Questions should constrain themselves to facts and not illicit gossip or rumor or debate or extended discussion (all run counter to the "fit" of this place). Only Apple knows what the S stands for and why they named it as such. Moreover, they've never publicly advertised it. –  Oct 06 '11 at 08:06
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    I think the downvotes likely came because this is not a problem you're having. This place tends to center around people trying to work through some kind of error or glitch or to generally just get something working. This is more of a factoid that really doesn't "help" anyone. –  Oct 06 '11 at 08:10
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    This isn't a great question, but I don't think it's "not constructive". Apple said that the "S" in the "3GS" stood for "speed", I think it's understandable to ask what the "S" in "4S" stands for, even if the answer is that there is no official answer. – Kyle Cronin Oct 06 '11 at 08:34
  • @Daniel: OK, that makes sense (though even strictly following the guidelines, there's still an assumption being made that an answer wouldn't "help" me solve a "problem"). But I was also using other questions as models: things that, if answered, would make the site more broadly informative. I also see now that there were upvotes too, so some of the downs may simply have been to "correct" those, which also makes perfect sense. Having this question end with net ups would have been odd. – orome Oct 06 '11 at 12:52
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    @raxacoricofallapatorius - I recommend that you read a couple of blog posts: Good Subjective, Bad Subjective and (in particular) Real Questions Have Answers. If there is no possible correct answer, it's not an appropriate question on Stack Exchange. – Dori Oct 08 '11 at 05:01

3 Answers3

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Apple itself hasn't released any information regarding the S. The three most common theories out there seem to be "S" for "Siri", "S" for "speed" and "S" for "Steve". My guess is the "S" means "speed", like the iPhone 3GS.

please delete me
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  • Your forgot 'Speech'. The 'S' meaning speed in this context makes very little since. The A4 -> A5 speed difference is nearly nothing compared to the iPhone 3G's ARM processor up to the 3GS'es ARM-Cortex A8. – Jason Salaz Oct 06 '11 at 04:48
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    @VxJasonxV I think Siri and Speech could almost be considered synonymous, in this situation. – please delete me Oct 06 '11 at 12:30
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    I think the S should stand for Steve because he just passed away on October 5th. "iPhone 4 Steve" makes sense :) But it seems to stand for all the things that @Mahnax said. – Nathan Oct 08 '11 at 03:55
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As of October 2011 when this was first asked, there has been no official answer stated. With the 3GS, Apple officially stated "the S is for speed." There has been no comparable explanation given for the 4S.

HOWEVER, in an interview at the All Things D conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated, "some people might say it stands for Siri or speed. We were thinking of Siri when we did it."

So the official answer is that the S in iPhone 4S stands for...

Siri

Community
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Daniel
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The S in 4S stands for the same thing as the S in 3GS. But as of October 2011, I think it is safe to say it is not Siri.

Daniel
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GEdgar
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