According to The Jakarta Globe, Apple’s three carrier partners in Singapore are making plans to offer iPhone 4S models without a camera. Don’t be too quick to judge it, there is a reasoning behind everything.
While this completely removes one of the iPhone’s biggest features, the 8MP camera, it does make the device a lot more appealing to those in the military; which is exactly who they are targeting with this product. The reason for removing the camera is to target sales from members of the military who are prohibited from bringing camera-equipped phones onto their bases.
“Following a year-long review, Mindef [the Singapore Defense Ministry] recently issued guidelines to its servicemen on the use of such smartphone. It is understood that servicemen with these phones must show a certificate to prove that their handsets were modified by any one of the local telcos.”
These camera-less iPhones are not an officially-sanctioned product offered by Apple, it’s the carriers. They are taking the iPhones and removing both the front and back cameras before sale and charging a premium for the custom service.