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Is Apple Hiding A Spectacular iPhone For 2017?

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This article is more than 7 years old.

I'm not a believer in 'iPhone sales have peaked' stories for the simple matter we get them at every launch. The iPhone 4S and 5S were the same - not much had changed compared to the iPhone 4 and 5 and the media and investors questioned the future of the device. iPhone 6 sales were a hit, largely thanks to a revolutionary new larger design. However, the iPhone 7 hasn't been met with much fanfare from the people that make those figures swell.

The iPhone 7 - more evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Image credit: Apple

They are the people that Apple inspired with its big-hitting launches - the people moving from dumb phones to smartphones, from early, inferior Android devices that were keenly following every launch and new set of specifications. So what's changed? Well, the simple answer is that customers have, and the iPhone hasn't.

A little bump in specifications, which is what we've seen since the launch of the iPhone 6 in 2014, isn't enough to drag people from non-Apple environments anymore, nor enough to make people want to upgrade when they don't really need to. I'm a classic example. I tend to buy my iPhone's outright and then get a cheap sim-only contract - it works out cheaper in the long run, although my wallet usually quakes in the corner come upgrade time. However, I've always waited for a complete number change and this is the first time I'll be skipping two complete launches.

For me, the iPhone 7 is lackluster mixed bag. Half the features I wanted to see - wireless charging, higher specification screen, significantly better battery life didn't arrive - things I've been waiting for since the iPhone 5. It also removed one or two things I wanted as well - most notably the headphone jack. In short, it simply hasn't wanted to make me upgrade from my iPhone 6.

I can't be alone in thinking this, yet just two years ago I was queuing outside an Apple store on launch day, keenly awaiting the iPhone 6, and for me, it was worth every penny. Two years is a long time in the world of tech, of course, but ultimately the writing is on the wall - Apple needs to do more.

This leaves us with two conclusions. Firstly, the decline in iPhone sales and boost to Apple's revenues in other areas in its latest financial figures released this week, could point at a downward trend not just of iPhone sales, but of popularity too. We have yet to see concrete, official iPhone 7 sales, but my guess is that they won't be great. In this light, Apple could well scale things back and just roll with it.

There is another more exciting option, though, which is that something big is planned for 2017. This might seem strange as the device would logically be an iPhone 7S - a revamped, speed-boosted, spec-bumped iPhone 7 that doesn't differ much from the original design. However, there's something else happening next year - the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Yes, it really has been 10 years.

This has been a hot topic of conversation among some of my forward-thinking iPhone fan friends over the last few months and the reception of the iPhone 7's launch means many of us are convinced that 2017 won't hold just another new iPhone, but something that not only does justice to 10 years of spectacular, successful smartphone design, but addresses many of its missing features and balances the scales against whatever Samsung's flagship is at the time.

As mentioned earlier, wireless charging, a higher-spec screen and better batterylife are just a few things I'd like to see. Specifically with battery tech, there are several ways Apple could increase battery life and reduce charge times significantly, just as Sony has done with the latest Xperia handsets. There's also scope for much bigger changes. Don't forget, Apple backtracked on Steve Jobs' continuing belief that iPhones should be small - the iPhone 6 proved that he was wrong and Apple was right to do this.

If iPhone 7 sales are truly terrible, then I wouldn't blame them if, amongst other things, they reintroduced the headphone jack. It's unlikely, yes, given that the iPhone 7's design very much revolves around the extra space created by ditching it, but given that Apple has done what it said it wouldn't before, anything is possible.

With $237.6 billion in the bank, surely that's enough for Apple to do something really interesting, rather than just do the obvious and go with the iPhone 7S? What about an all-singing, all-dancing iPhone 10?

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