A veritable torrent of industry leaks are all pointing toward the iPhone 7 (expected in September) being a little bit better than the current iPhone 6S. With their smartphone sales beginning to decline, it begs the question of why Apple would be releasing a rather tepid new handset at a time when it needs a “good God I need that in my pocket” device?
The answer: because the iPhone of 2017, which will mark the tenth anniversary of Apple’s intrepid smartphone, is going to be awesome.
Technology enthusiast and general know-all John Gruber revealed on his podcast The Talk Show that the iPhone of 2017 would feature an ‘edgeless’ screen, with a home button built into the phone’s display. Something a bit like this concept drawing by Marek Weidlich…
“I’ve heard this independently and it is completely getting rid of the chin and forehead of the phone,” said Gruber. “The entire face will be the display. And the Touch ID sensor will be somehow embedded in the display. The front-facing camera will somehow be embedded in the display. The speaker, everything. All the sensors will somehow be behind the display.
“What I don’t know, and I have no idea, is whether that means that they’re going to shrink the actual thing in your hand to fit the screen sizes we already have, or whether they’re going to grow the screens to fit the devices we’re already used to holding… I don’t know.”
This builds on a rumour that the 10th anniversary iPhone would be built with an all-glass body – shifting away from the current aluminium design in favour of something a bit more like the iPhone 4.
Whatever Apple is working on, it needs to be something pretty special if it’s going to conquer the all-important Chinese market. So long as it fits in our pockets and has a battery that lasts a full day, we’ll be happy.
