Following Apple’s past behavior, this year’s iPhone is expected to be called the iPhone 7, but it seems that we could be wrong. A report from Evan Blass on VentureBeat has revealed that Apple could instead be saving the “iPhone 7” name for next year’s model, which by all accounts will be the iPhone refresh that we’ve been waiting for.
You might recall that yesterday a report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that Apple planned to ditch the 2-year redesign cycle for its iPhones. While the report did not dive into specifics, it does corroborate an earlier claim that suggested that Apple could be moving to a 3-year cycle instead.
If this is true, it makes sense that this year’s iPhone will not be called the iPhone 7, and like we said, all the leaks so far have hinted that this year’s iPhone is basically a refreshed and upgraded version of the iPhone 6s/6s Plus, with maybe an option for dual-cameras, but apart from that, the design and its features will remain more or less the same.
This effectively gives us 3 years worth of iPhone 6 variants, which corroborates the earlier rumor and is also in line with another rumor that says 2017’s model will sport a brand new all-glass design, the removal of the home button with Touch ID embedded beneath the screen. Of course it should all be taken with a grain of salt for now, but all these rumors are certainly compelling.