Still, Cupertino reigns as the 800-pound gorilla (remember when Microsoft was the unassailable juggernaut in both OS and browser?). They have no incentive to give up their iPhone "walled garden" ecosystem based on iOS and iTunes. But (best current guess: September 21) approaches, rumors of a nano-SIM card and a new connector (yet more non-standard formats) persist. Apple marches to the beat of its own drummer--you want an iPhone, you buy one. Lines will form overnight, media outlets will swarm and clog their outlets with news of The Release, and the official price won't matter in Mongkok.

And despite one of the better retail supply-chain operations around, it will be difficult to get one--at first. Apple has been hoisted on its own petard: after the iPhone 5 launch, they need to address iPad issues. Will they release a smaller/cheaper iPad this year? That rumor's persisted for months.

The lesson for enterprises in all this: BYOD is here to stay, and regardless of device, company policies are essential to protect company-data. Breaches were noted with the first iPod: people walked into retail shops selling Apple computers, plugged in the device using a FireWire 400 cable, and copied files (the original iPod appeared as a hard disk). Nowadays, the cable isn't needed, nor is an Apple device.

With corporate-network security, the devices change but the principle remains the same: lock it or lose it.