No home button. An organic LED screen. An edge-to-edge
display. That is what’s tipped for the next premium iPhone model that launches
in the early hours of tomorrow.
Apple is believed to be readying three handsets: upgrades to
the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and a premium 10th anniversary iPhone. It’s 10 years
since co-founder Steve Jobs launched the game- changing first iPhone in 2007.
Some suggest there will be a Plus version of the anniversary
iPhone as well. We simply don’t know. Apple is yet to make any statement about
the new phones. The information is gossip and leaks, but often the leaks are
right.
Even the names are unknown. One school of thought is iPhone
7s, iPhone 7s Plus and iPhone 8 for the anniversary phone. Another is iPhone 8,
iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, where X is the roman numeral for 10 being 10 years.
We do know that Apple’s success of the last 10 years won’t be repeated without
major advances in smartphone technology that continue to make buying a new
iPhone compelling.
Or it will need a compelling new device that gets consumers
in a buying frenzy again.
Apple’s share price has been far from buoyant in the lead up
to this event. It dropped last week after reports that manufacturing delays
will see a scarcity of premium iPhone handsets when this year’s phones go on
sale. That’s believed to be about September 22. The share price has been lingering
just under $200.
For the first time tomorrow, journalists will witness a
product launch at Apple’s new “spaceship” campus, in the Steve Jobs Theatre.
From the published drawings the theatre is set underneath a hill. You get in
through an imposing circular entryway above. The premium iPhone brings with it
welcome innovation. That includes moving from a LCD display to organic LED.
Instead of the iPhone display being backlit, the display pixels will light up
in response to current. If you’ve seen OLED on TVs, it is stunning, with its
wider offering of colours and better contrast. That’s a big tick to Apple.
The apparent move to omit a home button on the anniversary
phone is controversial. Last year the audio socket went. Now it’s the button
next door. Without the Home button, Apple can serve up a monstrous edge-to-edge
display, albeit with room at the top for cameras and an infra-red sensor. But
we will have to forget about pressing the home button to return to the menu
screen from anywhere, pressing it twice to see active apps, or long pressing it
to invoke Siri.
There are reports Apple will offer these functions through
gestures. For example, you might drag upwards from within an app to close it
and return to home.
That begs another question. What about fingerprint
recognition? Does it stay? Apple is believed to be implementing face
recognition, and if it does, the phone will need an infra-red sensor to aid
security. Microsoft with its Hello feature for Windows computers is the master
at face recognition. If Apple gets anywhere near that quality, it should be a
hit. But we’ll have to see if Apple face recognition works when you have your
glasses on or off, or when you are wearing a hat or are in dark surroundings.
You don’t want to be punching that default PIN number in too often to unlock
your phone.
There’s also the possibility of wireless charging. It’s
worth noting that many of these premium features have been on top-of-range
Android handsets for some time. We don’t know which of the above features will
make it to an upgraded iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. But we’d punt on them having a
camera and sensing system that makes full use of Apple’s new augmented reality
platform.
The release of hundreds of augmented reality apps could be
the big highlight of this event.
The release of phones with different specs: the upgraded
iPhones versus the anniversary iPhone creates marketing issues for Apple. Why
buy an upgraded iPhone 7 if the anniversary phone is so much better?
The money is also on Apple releasing a third generation
Apple Watch that makes full use of an upgraded WatchOS operating system,
WatchOS 4. For one, you’ll get a more intelligent proactive all-day assistant.
You’ll have artificial intelligence on your wrist with more personalisation and
feedback.
There may also be a version of Apple TV that outputs 4K
media.
Expect some surprises as well. We’ll know in a day’s time
exactly what Apple has to offer and whether the speculation is right.
