Richard Goodwin 09/12/2016 - 9:59am

Apple’s 2017 iPhone release is the phone’s 10th birthday, so will this mean a name change? Maybe… but maybe not

Most sources tend to agree that Apple’s 2017 iPhone release, whether called the iPhone 7s, iPhone 8 or iPhone X, will be a special event. It is believed Apple has a bunch of changes its gearing up to implement and this has generated a lot of hype around the launch.

Rightly so, too. Apple will implement OLED panels inside its 2017 iPhones – or, at least one of them – as well as radically alter the design and overall look and finish of the handsets. Curved displays have been discussed, as have 4K panels and all-touch frontages. Next year’s phone is the one Jony Ive has been dreaming about making since day one, apparently.

2017 is also the iPhone’s 10th birthday. This is a big deal for Apple and its fans, obviously, so it stands to reason that Apple would want to do something special… perhaps this was why this year’s iPhones were so pedestrian? Apple was saving all the good stuff for its anniversary iPhone.

But what will it be called? One name being passed around is the iPhone X – X certainly sounds cool and it also represents the number 10 in Roman Numeral form. I like the name iPhone X, even if it does sound a little smutty. The other options, we’re told, are the far less exciting iPhone 7s and iPhone 8.

Also: we now know that S and Solid Number updates don’t really stand for much these days. Traditionally, solid number updates – the iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 – were the iterations that featured the biggest changes. But then the iPhone 7 happened and that tradition kind of went out of the window.

Are Big Changes Guaranteed?

Nothing’s 100% official at present, but I do believe 2017’s iPhone release will implement big design changes alongside OLED panels. Apple has already made purchase orders for said panels, so that kind of puts that rumour to bed once and for all.

A report from Japan recently claimed, however, that Apple’s 2017 iPhone will be called the iPhone 7s and added that it would look more or less the same as the iPhone 7, save for a new red colour option. I’m taking this one with a pinch of salt, however, as far more reliable sources have already shown that 2017’s releases will be different from what currently have.

I do not think Apple could get away with doing another rehash of its iPhone 6 design language, which is now approaching four years in age. The idea that Apple – a company that prides itself on design – would do this again, making it a four year design cycle, just doesn’t add up, given the weight of evidence to the contrary.

The ONLY thing that would make existing iPhone 7 users upgrade to the new flagship is if it looked completely different. Apple dodged a bullet with the iPhone 7, sales dipped, but not nearly as much as they could have, and the company would be foolish to make the same mistake again.

In order to get the same levels of sales it enjoyed with the iPhone 6, Apple needs to make next year’s iPhones as desirable as possible and the only way to do that is with a complete design refresh. Anything less just wouldn’t stack up.

As an intermittent iPhone user, I had ZERO interest in the iPhone 7 and this is the first time that has been the case. I appreciated the updates Apple had implemented but as a phone, it just did nothing for me – and that has never happened before with an Apple iPhone.

I cannot be the only person that felt that way. I think next year’s iPhone, Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone, will, once again, be something very special. I think Apple will attempt to outdo Samsung, after Samsung schooled them with design in 2015/16, and beat its iPhone 6 sales record.

And it will do this if it releases a desirable, different-looking, super-powerful iPhone in 2017. Or three iPhone models, as reports suggest it will.

If that’s the case, then sign me up!