Many Looking Past iPhone 7 to Next Year's iPhone 8 (fortune.com)

Reuters reports: The iPhone 7 is expected to make its global debut on Wednesday, but many consumers and investors are already setting their sights on Apple's 2017 version of the popular gadget, hoping for more significant advances. At its annual product launch in San Francisco on Wednesday, the world's most valuable publicly traded company is expected to reveal an iPhone without a headphone jack, paving the way for wireless headphones, a touch-sensitive home button that vibrates, double-lens cameras for the larger Plus edition and other incremental improvements. Apple typically gives its main product, which accounts for more than half of its revenue, a big makeover every other year and the last major redesign was the iPhone 6, in 2014. The modest updates suggest that this cycle will be three years.Apple will celebrate iPhone's 10th anniversary next year. Rumor has it that the company plans to switch from LCD to OLED for display on the next year's flagship phone. It is also pegged to have an all-glass body.

Comments

Sounds familiar

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't this what the report says every year... right before setting new sales records?

Re:Sounds familiar

[Austerity Empowers]

It says that iff they didn't receive enough ad revenue from Apple.

Wireless Headphones

[Aerokii]

"Paving the way for wireless headphones"- really? We've had them for ages, they're not exactly new or even all that uncommon.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[grumpy-cowboy]

It's from Apple, so it's new again. ;)

Re:Wireless Headphones

[Kohath]

Just like there were MP3 players before the iPod.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[PhrostyMcByte]

Yes, but this time it's Apple doing it, so it's new and innovative. Like MP3 players and multi-touch were.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[ilsaloving]

They probably mean "Paving the way for wireless headphones that are ginormous piles of crap".

Honestly, Stereo bluetooth sounds like crap. It's adequate if you're listening to music in a noisy environment so you would be able to identify details anyway, or if you just don't care... The compression used in Bluetooth is so severe that it not only ruins music, but even makes the majority of VOIP codec's unusable. I tried setting up a VOIP system on a tablet, and the only way I could make it work was to use a codec that did minimal compression (and so was very bandwidth intensive). Anything else made it sound like a Cylon being pushed feet-first into a Blendtec Blender.

There are some devices out there that use aptX for higher fidelity audio, but that's a proprietary codec that has very tiny market penetration.

The next major version of Bluetooth, which should be available "soon", is supposed to have a new profile specifically for high quality audio, and I'm setting my hopes on that.

Also, it's not unusual for Apple to get certain technology before anyone else (ie: thunderbolt), so I'm hoping that they are doing what they are doing with the iPhone 7 because they have got some kind of exclusivity agreement with someone for their silicon, and so the audio should sound amazing. If they don't... well... I expect Apple's phone division will probably have a bad time this year.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[Aerokii]

Yeah, that's the other part of this that I wouldn't be happy about if I were an apple customer- bluetooth sound quality is far, FAR from superb. While I DO own a pair of headphones of that variety, the only reason I use them at all is to make my life easier while working out/not destroying the cord like I have so many times before.

Speaking of which, I imagine many users will be stuck charging their headphones daily- perhaps even more if they're anything like mine which top out at 4 hours. Right now it's only a frustration, since I charge twice a week- but having to deal with it on a regular basis is not something I'd look forward to.

That being said, the silver lining I see in this is the possibility that we'll see a major push to improve the quality of wireless headphones. Unless they're using their own proprietary standard, at which point they can get fucked.

Re: Wireless Headphones

[Type44Q]

Stereo bluetooth sounds like crap. It's adequate if you're listening to music in a noisy environment

If you're not using A2DP Lossless, you're doing it wrong.

Re: Wireless Headphones

[ilsaloving]

Unless you can also tell me where on my mobile device I can explicitly set the bluetooth profile you specify, your comment is basically useless.

Most devices don't give you that level of control, or may well not provide that profile at all, so claiming that someone is "doing it wrong", whether developer or end user, is pointlessly hostile.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[djbckr]

I don't hear that at all from my headset. Now, it does have to be configured properly - when the microphone is on, the sample/bitdepth changes to 8K/8bit mono and it sounds quite horrid. However it is capable of 14.4K/16bit stereo and it sounds *really* good. They only cost $20 too on Amazon. Coulax, in case you are wondering, but I'm sure many headsets are similar. I am a former audio engineer and musical hobbyist, so I feel like I am able to speak somewhat intelligently to this matter.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[ilsaloving]

I just came across this article, farther down in the list:

https://apple.slashdot.org/sto...

So it sounds like they may well be trying to go their own way. So... I guess getting themselves fucked is exactly what they're aiming for. :P

Guess I definitely won't be getting an iPhone 7. Maybe they'll pull their head out by the time the iPhone 8 comes around, but I won't be holding my breath.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[ilsaloving]

Oh? This is new information for me. I didn't realize that that happens when the microphone is active. I will have to look into that brand. Could you give a specific model? Also, do you know if it supports Siri?

Re:Wireless Headphones

[mallyn]

Yeah, first of all, you should have mentioned Vitamix Professional series blenders. They are faster and louder.

But what I want to say is to have good audio that is truly yours and something to be proud of, you need to make your own vacuum tube amplifier and then use it to power real electrostatic headphones over a wire.

And the source? Vinyl.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[dgatwood]

I'm assuming that was a dyslexic moment, and that the GP meant 44.1.

Re: Wireless Headphones

[Blaskowicz]

This is how I feel with "RAM is cheap" comments. No, even if a terabyte of DRAM costs $50 that means nothing if your computer only has a couple DIMM or SO-DIMM ddr2 slots. This makes it a $300 upgrade not a $50 upgrade (more for a laptop), and if it's just for running what you were already running before such as a web browser, what a waste.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[Blaskowicz]

Apple's legacy connectors were dickish (a VGA connector with the wrong layout), redundant (Apple-only keyboards? yawn), 1980s crap used only by themselves - whatever the printer/modem/localtalk ports were, and external SCSI was overpriced and dangerous.

We can only wish Apple took a similar initiative to get rid of "legacy" on their iPhones. This means to get rid of their Lightning connector and use USB-C in its place.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[ilsaloving]

Either that, or they forgot the appropriate command in their AT init string, and forgot to enable compression. AT%C2 should bump that puppy up to 57.6kbps if you have a clean line. :)

Re:Wireless Headphones

[hondo77]

You clearly don't know what MP3 players were like before iPod.

Re:Wireless Headphones

[arglebargle_xiv]

Yeah, first of all, you should have mentioned Vitamix Professional series blenders. They are faster and louder.

Nah, what you need is Turnex, son of Durex, the blender for the next millennium. Not only is it faster and louder, but it can also be turned into the most powerful vacuum cleaner!

Many not satisfied with N say N+1 will be it.

[0100010001010011]

Apple, Ford, Android, Dell, Intel, et al.

Invariably you'll get the slashdotters whining that N+1 is only an incremental improvement over N without looking at the fact that some people are still on N-5. Skylake may not be the end all be all but if you're coming from Core or Nehalem it's a noticeable improvement.

New owners, you should know by now this isn't the stuff Slashdot is made of. At the minimum tack it on to the actual release story.

Re:Many not satisfied with N say N+1 will be it.

[ranton]

Invariably you'll get the slashdotters whining that N+1 is only an incremental improvement over N without looking at the fact that some people are still on N-5. Skylake may not be the end all be all but if you're coming from Core or Nehalem it's a noticeable improvement.

When these companies thrive on the most profitable segment of their customer base upgrading every 1-2 years, critiquing N+1 or N+2 incremental improvements is justified. Any company should easily be able to make an N+5 upgrade seem like the device can walk on water, so that is no achievement. But being able to keep people on a one or two year upgrade treadmill is what makes Apple the most profitable company in the world.

Its not too surprising Apple is only doing incremental improvements since its main flagship phone competitor (Samsung) is doing the same. I still have my Note 4 since I think the last two years of Samsung updates are lackluster. The only reason Apple made big updates in 2015 is because they were a couple years late on moving towards phablets.

I agree with the summary and add that both Apple and Samsung are dangerously close to making a three year replacement cycle the norm. That's good for my wallet I guess.

Re:Many not satisfied with N say N+1 will be it.

[mallyn]

+2! Well said!!

Re:Many not satisfied with N say N+1 will be it.

[mjwx]

Apple, Ford, Android, Dell, Intel, et al.

Invariably you'll get the slashdotters whining that N+1 is only an incremental improvement over N without looking at the fact that some people are still on N-5. Skylake may not be the end all be all but if you're coming from Core or Nehalem it's a noticeable improvement.

New owners, you should know by now this isn't the stuff Slashdot is made of. At the minimum tack it on to the actual release story.

The problem is, unlike Ford, Android, Dell, Intel, et.al. that Apple can not advertise the next JebusPhone as simply an N+1, even though it is 100% just an N+1. Apple needs to keep the mouth breathing masses fooled that they are revolutionary. The problem they have is that the RDF has pretty much died off and people are beginning to see that they aren't that great after all.

Also, as you pointed out people generally go from something that was a few generations ago to something current. Someone buying a Ford Focus would notice a huge difference between a 2005 Focus and a 2015 Focus.. Apple however relies on repeat sales to keep its numbers up, around 80% of Iphone purchases are made by people who already had Iphones, this statistic has probably gotten worse since Apple has almost run out of markets to expand into. So people going from N-3 to N is going to hurt them.

The problem apple has is that the Iphone has become too passe. Even someone on benefits can get one (and I mean buying it, not stealing it) and now the RDF has worn off people aren't in a hurry to spend hundreds of pounds to upgrade any more.

Re:Many not satisfied with N say N+1 will be it.

[0100010001010011]

Wow. Android Fanboy much? Apple puts considerable time into their software development and it comes across polished. While I'm fine installing Cyanogenmod to get rid of carrier shit most people aren't. They use their iPhones and their Macs and they Just Work.

people are beginning to see that they aren't that great after all.

I wish I had Apple stock for every time I've heard this for the last 2 decades.

Ha Ha Ha!

[no-body]

Luckily, I am not part of this "Many" at all.
My life won't change a bit through Apple, except this post...

Sorry

[Comboman]

Sorry, it should say, "Paving the way for forced upgrades to proprietary, Apple-branded EarPod wireless headphones".

Re:Sorry

[cayenne8]

You misspelled Beats.

No...he meant something that actually passes for headphones.....

;)

Tim Cook has claimed big things for 5 years

[JoeyRox]

Every year of disappointment brings new claims from Apple's CEO about how they're working on amazing things for next year. I guess what Mr. Cook finds amazing is not so amazing to anyone else.

Out of touch, Apple

[mysidia]

a touch-sensitive home button that vibrates, double-lens cameras for the larger Plus edition

Sigh.... Vibrating button is a parlor trick, nothing useful or appealing...... Go do something useful, like 200GB of memory in the base
model, and provide me a memory card slot, so I can load in data from external devices, archive things, or have additional storage available on
my phone.

Also, longer battery runtime and an option to replace my battery on the go are necessary,
until you do those things, Apple: I have no reason to upgrade.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[jittles]

This is why I am waiting for the iPhone 7s. It's going to remove the Lightning plug and all you have to do is say a 4 hour prayer to save Steve Job's soul every day to charge the device.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[Stormwatch]

>card slot
>replaceable battery

My Samsung Note II has those. Even the newest iPhone would be a downgrade.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[Maritz]

Go do something useful, like 200GB of memory in the base

What do Apple charge, roughly, per GB? I vaguely recall it being... unreasonable. Apple don't seem to like giving memory out cheaply.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[Dixie_Flatline]

Apple doesn't care about you.

That's fine, they don't have to. Stop asking Apple for things if you don't want to buy their devices. The fact that YOU don't want their devices doesn't mean that other people don't. That the devices don't have these features doesn't mean that they're bad or deficient, merely that they don't meet your requirements. Your requirements are fine, and their phones are fine.

What I don't understand is how every post on /. about Apple's phones becomes a free for all for people to talk about all the things Apple has never done and will never do. Just accept that you're not in their target market and move on.

Or is it that you really ACTUALLY want to buy an Apple phone and be seen with an Apple phone, but you can't because of these sticking points? Like, you really wish that Tim Cook was the guy you were buying stuff from, and not Sundar Pichai?

Just give up and commit to Android. I'm sure you have one now, but none of us that follow Apple care what you think is important on an iPhone. I'm not saying this to be offensive, but seriously, your comments are just taking up space and I can't even filter you out by your score because some other Android user that has the same opinion of Apple is voting you up.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[mysidia]

That's fine, they don't have to. Stop asking Apple for things if you don't want to buy their devices.

Who says I won't buy their devices? I will buy a lot more of their devices if they make these two improvements.

That the devices don't have these features doesn't mean that they're bad or deficient

No, but adding these features will add a LOT more value, then many of the other changes they have already done
and have potentially taken for this iteration. It would also in some sense ameliorate some recent trouble they have caused
with crazy removal of the headphone jack.....

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[Blaskowicz]

Wait for a phone that takes UFS storage (memory cards, not the old useless file system for DVDs)
That will allow memory cards that are basically as good as the internal flash, or even better. It's a single-chip SSD by this point. You would have the option for crappy internal + good external (i.e. performance, reliability and capacity), or good internal + crappy external, or both crappy, or both good.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[Kjella]

This is why I am waiting for the iPhone 7s. It's going to remove the Lightning plug and all you have to do is say a 4 hour prayer to save Steve Job's soul every day to charge the device.

Well, I suppose that could be useful after the App-ocalypse. We might actually get temples dedicated to Jobs, where they recite the book of Jobs aka the Apple EULA. We could have the orthodox church all in white and a reformed church where they worship the rose gold, gray, silver and black which of course hate each other. His followers will declare that there is no god but Jobs, and Siri is his prophet. And they'll all be awaiting the rAPPture, where all the faithful will be uploaded to the iCloud to live forever. Okay, I'll go take my meds now...

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[unixisc]

200GB would be useful precisely b'cos they don't offer a micro SD slot. If they did, even 16GB might be okay (depending on whether one could set it up for all messages, voicemails, etc to be on the card).

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[Dixie_Flatline]

No, but they WON'T. You're asking for a tradeoff that Apple isn't willing to make.

They will never include a memory card slot. They're trying to REDUCE the number of things in the phone so they have more space for other stuff. They don't want a mechanical home button because there are too many failures after people press them for a million times. They've made some choices, and all of them are antithetical to adding a memory card slot.

256GB of storage on the base model? That's a bit of a pipe dream. I'd love it too, but there are precious few devices from any manufacturer that offer it at any tier.

They won't make a removable battery. Not ever. Don't ask for it, don't expect it. It takes up space, and is fundamentally against their design principles. Especially after today, it would make it a lot harder to waterproof (not impossible; I have waterproof cameras that have removable batteries--but it takes up a lot more space).

Their priorities are thin, light phones with as few ports as possible and an extremely locked down configuration that's easier to support. Anything that you ask for that runs counter to those priorities is doomed forever, and that's what I mean when I say Apple doesn't care about you. Your priorities are completely orthogonal to theirs. You want versatility and expandability, and those are perfectly good things to want, but you're barking up the wrong tree.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[mysidia]

It's going to remove the Lightning plug and all you have to do is say a 4 hour prayer ....

They could design the phone so there's no port, And make the aluminum case itself an electrode for charging

Give you a USB cable with Apple-proprietary magnet/clips; one pair of magnets each to snap onto opposite ends of the phone.

Induce an electromagnetic field inside the case, and include a coil inside the phone capable of releasing energy stored in the EM field as electricity for charging the battery.

Re:Out of touch, Apple

[mysidia]

Apple don't seem to like giving memory out cheaply.

They need to get with the times.... Flash is cheap.

I have a M.2 card with a 500GB SSD. The flash chip is about the size of a fingernail, and cost less than $200 brand new a year ago.

Biggest thing today

[Kohath]

Today will be the turning point in the way you buy a cellular service plan. In 3 years, we will be talking about how, after the iPhone 7 release with iOS 10's first-class treatment of VoIP services, we no longer need to buy voice minutes on cell phone plans.

Re:Biggest thing today

[danbob999]

I doubt iOS10 will change much. Just like Android 2.3 integration of SIP didn't revolutionize the market (although it's a nice feature and I use it, it's already possible to go data-only).

Apple still rely on phone numbers (so carriers) even for protocols such as iMessage, which could work just fine with an email address as an identifier.

Re:Biggest thing today

[Kohath]

Just like Android 2.3 integration of SIP didn't revolutionize the market

Because the public doesn't notice when some arbitrary version of Android adds another tech feature. They don't even know which version of Android their phone is running.

Re:Biggest thing today

[EvilSS]

Do voice "minutes" really matter anymore anyway? At least in the US the vast majority (not all plans, but most of them from the big 4) of available plans already include unlimited minutes because no one talks on the phone anymore. It's all about milking users for that data (and this change will benefit carriers since all those VOIP calls will be over the data when the user is off WiFi).

Re: Biggest thing today

[peragrin]

Who buys voice minutes? All modern Verizon and att plans are data plans with unlimited voice and text added on.

Re:Biggest thing today

[danbob999]

So? It has been there since almost forever. 90%+ of all Android devices ever sold probably has it.
VoIP on a data-only smartphone is not only possible, it is convenient.

Re:Biggest thing today

[evilviper]

In 3 years, we will be talking about how, after the iPhone 7 release with iOS 10's first-class treatment of VoIP services, we no longer need to buy voice minutes on cell phone plans.

Bullshit, that's a trivial improvement. Google reached the end-game years ago with the release of the Hangouts Dialer (unlimited free calls over whatever data connection you have), then doubled-down on it with Google-Fi (no voice minutes at all). The bottom dropped-out of charging high prices for limited minutes and texts years ago, and everything has been sold by data amounts. Apple's first few steps into the area are years behind everybody else.

The real headline should be

[mike2006]

"Many Looking Past iPhone to old and new competitors". Due to time they lost the wow want fashion factor and the missing headphone jack will also send many to other options.

Alternating Years

[blueshift_1]

Why would they release the 8 next year? In recent years, they've do iPhone #S on the alternating years where they keep the same basic design but improve the internals a bit. I think you'll probably have to wait another year for the 8.

Re:Alternating Years

[SolemnLord]

I'm eagerly waiting for the day when phone manufacturers (not just Apple) decide that a clear name is all they need for their phones and they can drop the numbers not directly tied to the model. Car manufacturers use years, why not electronics?

Re:Alternating Years

[UnknowingFool]

Car manufacturers use years, why not electronics?

Not all of them use just years. Many of the luxury models still use numbers. BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, etc.

Re:Alternating Years

[blueshift_1]

Not to mention, how would you know which was better? Clearly the iPhone 7 will be 1 better than the 6... just as will be the iPhone 2001 will be 1 better than the iPhone 2000

Of course I'm waiting for the iPhone 8!

[moshiko]

But I'm going to buy the 7 while I wait.

They should release an iPhone 10 so people buy now

[no1nose]

It worked for Microsoft!

Why Not Get Both?

[TechyImmigrant]

Being on the installment plan, I get a new one every year anyway. So do a lot of people. There's no incentive to skip.

Re: Why Not Get Both?

[TechyImmigrant]

There's a huge incentive to skip. No headphone jack.

Well yes. That has become apparent today.

Re:Predicted before

[TechyImmigrant]

This was predicted in the dilbert comics long back
http://dilbert.com/strip/2012-...

This was done in practice by Adam Osborne in 1982 and again in 1983 and is generally called "Doing an Osborne".

iPhone 7

[p51d007]

LOL, think they will make a "retro" version with a 3.5" screen, HUGE like the original iPhone They'd sell a ton to "nostalgia" types

Re:"Thinner and lighter"

[unixisc]

What problem? All the carriers offer iPhones. It's Microsoft that is not supported by 2 of the 4 carriers

Quite frankly that is what I am doing

[WillAffleckUW]

I just bought an iPhone 5 SE 64 this summer, after my original release iPhone 5 died. Since the guts of the 5 SE are the 6s model, I don't see the point in getting a giant iPhone 7 when I can wait for the market to laugh at giant phones again and Apple comes to their senses and sells an iPhone 8 model that fits in my pocketses, yes, precious.

Suck on that, marketoids.