Apple To Launch Three New iPhones This Year: Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)

Apple is reportedly building three new iPhones, though the one with the most new features might not launch until a couple of months after the others. According to a report on Bloomberg, Apple is testing three new phones that it plans to launch this fall, including two with the same screen sizes as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The third iPhone, which may be named to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone's launch, is said to pack a new design with a stainless steel frame and curved glass. It's said to feature an embedded fingerprint reader and use OLED panels from Samsung and may have a screen that takes up most of the front of the smartphone's face. From the article: Apple also tested a more ambitious prototype with the same slightly curved front and steel frame, but a glass back with more dramatic curves on the top and bottom like the original iPhone design from 2007, one of the people said.

Comments

Finally

[110010001000]

Finally I get to throw away my iPhone 8. It was getting pretty dated.

Re:Finally

[DogDude]

Agreed. I was going to say something about that, so I'm glad you said it first.

Re:Finally

[tripleevenfall]

Hooray! More dainty phones, now with curved glass that will need many more replacements!

The big question is,

[kaka.mala.vachva]

Will they be courageous and get rid of the charging cable? Wireless charging only! Waterproof! All existing charger cables obsoleted in one swoop, new charging stations needed by the bedside, in the office, in the car - money, money everywhere.

Re:The big question is,

[skipkent]

You're scolding it wrong.

Re: The big question is,

[guruevi]

Wireless charging using a "pad" isn't hard although there are indeed significant losses. The problem is in size.

To make wireless charging possible at sufficient power (10-20W for most modern devices) you need lots of surface area and potentially pump 10x as much into the charger. You're also going to be creating a significant magnetic field (a transmitter) around a device reliant on its antennae.

Re:The big question is,

[thegarbz]

Will they be courageous and get rid of the charging cable?

Personally I'm hoping they get rid of the user.

Think of all the benefits: No need to charge a device, no need for it to ring, no need for it to work quickly, or to have a microphone, speaker, or any external hole at all. No more security risks, no pesky people replacing the finger print readers and then bitching for support. I really don't see the downside.

OLED sounds awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

Jobs would be proud. His influence will be felt for decades to come. What a journey is has been.

Re:OLED sounds awesome

[fiannaFailMan]

No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

Re:OLED sounds awesome

[spire3661]

IN the end, all this exposes is that people are stupid and need even thier music to be organized for them, in the process losing all manual control. The ipod was a move forward, but it came with a heavy cost. The only thing wrong with this statement is that it underestimates how stupid and lazy most people are.

buy a crazy expensive product to celebrate?

[known_coward_69]

so to celebrate the anniversary of smart phones people are going to buy some "special" $1000 phone that will be worthless in less than 5 years?

the stupidity continues

Re:buy a crazy expensive product to celebrate?

[kamapuaa]

I am not poor. If I really used it for five years....$200/year for a phone that I might use throughout the day is a bargain.

If you are old and just want it for calling your grandkids, yeah sure, get whatever's cheapest.

Re:buy a crazy expensive product to celebrate?

[antdude]

Yeah like a 4S which was free.

Re:buy a crazy expensive product to celebrate?

[nightfire-unique]

You.. might be on the wrong web site.

If you don't see the value in having a portal to the Internet with you everywhere you go, you're not going to find a whole lot of people here who can comiserate. We build the technology these phones enable.

Re:buy a crazy expensive product to celebrate?

[Gussington]

so to celebrate the anniversary of smart phones people are going to buy some "special" $1000 phone that will be worthless in less than 5 years?

the stupidity continues

In my market, the flagship devices (Galaxy/iPhone/Pixel etc) are about $1400 local dollars, and most people I know upgrade within 2 years as part of the their contract with the carrier. So this madness has already been normalised. Although I see some changes as the base tech becomes 'good enough', some people are starting to hold onto phones longer, and some are choosing mid ranges devices as replacements instead which are half the price (since a 2017 mid range is just as good as a 2015 flagship, which is all most people need).

Oh shit, "a refreshed user-interface"

[Anonymous Coward]

The article says, with emphasis added

All the new iPhones will run iOS 11, a mobile operating system that will include a refreshed user-interface and will be announced in June at the company's annual conference for developers, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This really, really, really scares me. These days, any time a UI is changed it often gets worse and worse. Just look at Windows 8. Just look at Firefox Australis. Just look at GNOME 3. Just look at MS Office. Just look at Android. Just look at Slashdot Beta.

If Millennials/Hipsters are developing this "refreshed user-interface", then I can't see it going well. Every other UI they've "designed" has been awful, and they've shown that they don't care about listening to user feedback.

This all leaves me very concerned.

Re:Oh shit, "a refreshed user-interface"

[Bill Hayden]

This really, really, really scares me. These days, any time a UI is changed it often gets worse and worse. Just look at Windows 8. Just look at Firefox Australis. Just look at GNOME 3. Just look at MS Office. Just look at Android. Just look at Slashdot Beta.

You don't even have to look further than the last refreshed user interface from Apple! The flat, pastel look in IOS 7 and later is a big step back from the original classy UI.

Re:Oh shit, "a refreshed user-interface"

[swb]

I think you're mostly right, these days a "UI refresh" is more about creating a false sense of change than any serious functional improvement.

Hopefully they've just overstated this and it's more about fonts or something.

Re:Oh shit, "a refreshed user-interface"

[unixisc]

Problem is that people just have no idea about how to leave well enough alone. They think that people get bored looking at the same layout, and then apply changes that are majorly habit altering

I myself have an iPhone 7, and since it has enough storage (128GB), I don't anticipate getting another one ever - until this phone dies. Only worry - that the iOS update would go all the way up to something like this. Once a sweet spot has been reached, leave it alone

Re:Oh shit, "a refreshed user-interface"

[LostMyBeaver]

hmm... I'm not sure I agree with you.

Windows 8 was the best user interface I've ever seen. I absolutely loved it and it went downhill quickly as people like you complained they couldn't figure out how to use it and Microsoft responded. Then in Windows 10, they more or less killed all the best parts of Windows 8 and brought us back the start menu which frankly... just isn't as usable.

Microsoft Office is bloody brilliant, their UI works absolutely fabulously and this is coming from someone who has been using Microsoft Word since the DOS days. The original ribbon wasn't great, but it got better.

Can't speak about Firefox, I only ever use it as a javascript debugger and DRM stripper.

Gnome never had a good user experience. Even the absolutely latest version doesn't address core issues that have existed since the beginning. Font rendering is absolutely horrible. You'd imagine that after 20 years of Freetype and other projects, they would have finally implemented something resembling a decent anti-aliaser... but nope. Then there's the damn near random design of UI controls that in the very few cases they are consistent contain checkboxes the size of 3 pixels squared or buttons with borders twice as wide as they should be. Of course you can customize that stuff, but if you do, the apps won't scale worth a shit because GTK+ is written by a bunch of drunken coders. Don't worry, most other desktops aren't really much better. With the billions going into Linux development, it would be really nice if just one company other than Google would actually attempt to focus on usability on Linux and Android doesn't really count as a Linux thing anymore.

Android... well, Android is just a copy of iOS in the latest versions. Let's be honest, over the past 10 years, it's almost silly how many efforts have been made by vendors to skin Android as iOS and then Google did it themselves. I have an Android phone I use when I travel and it's amazing how little I care for that phone. The entire experience feels slapped together and while search works better and the web browser is clearly better than on iOS, the overall user experience is poor. I love Apple's rule that programs known to crash get removed from the store. Google could try that, but more often than not, the program which crashes the most on my Samsung is the Play Store app itself. Oh, then there's the crap tons of crap ware from T-Mobile who I'm sure don't care about anything other than getting more icons onto the screen of their own... I don't even know what they do because who wants to open them?

When Windows and Mac first came out, a lot of people in their 40's complained about how if a bunch of generation X babies keep forcing us this way, we'll end up surrounded by graphics and programs that don't work anymore. They complained "I hate Windows 95 because there are too many ways to get to the same place". Surprisingly enough, they sounded a lot like you.

They were wrong too.

Re: Oh shit, "a refreshed user-interface"

[antdah]

Amen.

Apple continues to amaze...

[bogaboga]

They continue to rake in profits. I was one of those who thought their pricey gadget regime wouldn't last this long. how wrong I was...

Re:Apple continues to amaze...

[Anonymous Coward]

Until there is a serious competitor that isn't Swiss cheese like Android, smart people will continue to buy iPhones regardless of the cost.

I don't particularly like Apple, but nothing better has come along yet.

Courage

[ilsaloving]

For our latest model, we've done a great deal of market research and have learned that people don't actually use iPhones for anything. They just like walking around with the device in the hands, with the Apple logo clearly visible for strangers to see and thus validate the owners status as a hip and modern individual.

As such, our newest model has no electronics or accessible ports of any kind. It is an ultra-thin slab of brushed aluminium with an attractive glass inlay. In the process, we've managed to increase battery life to infinite levels, so you never have to worry about your device failing on you just as your sitting down at your local starbucks to show off your superiority while you enjoy your vente soy triple-whip Kopi Luwak latte with cinnamon.

--Apple

(Before any apple fanatics have an aneurism, I have an iPhone myself. The above is just a joke. Relax. Breathe.)

Re:Courage

[lucm]

(Before any apple fanatics have an aneurism, I have an iPhone myself.)

Fatwah avoided.

Re:Courage

[ilsaloving]

Apparently at least one did. :P

Bah, Bring back the iphone3

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously the iphone3gs was the perfect iphone in the hand.

If I could have one iphone it would be a iphone3gs with iphone 7 upgrades.

Re: Bah, Bring back the iphone3

[Type44Q]

Seriously the iphone3gs was the perfect iphone in the hand.

Yes, Donald; we're all very impressed that your hands are so big you can easily "palm" a golf ball...

Re: Bah, Bring back the iphone3

[lucm]

Seriously the iphone3gs was the perfect iphone in the hand.

Yes, Donald; we're all very impressed that your hands are so big you can easily "palm" a golf ball...

What is this fixation with his hands? Do liberals have a thing for fisting, or are you just unable to find something relevant to complain about?

Re:Bah, Bring back the iphone3

[unixisc]

Seriously the iphone3gs was the perfect iphone in the hand.

If I could have one iphone it would be a iphone3gs with iphone 7 upgrades.

Did the iPhone 3 GS have the amount of storage that an iPhone 7 has - like 32GB? Usually, the reason an iToy can't be upgraded is the storage. I had a first generation iPod Touch (8GB) that stopped at iOS 4.3, and my iPad Mini, which has 16GB, has stopped at iOS 9.3. I have an iPhone 7 w/ 128GB, and I don't think there will be an iOS version that it won't support.

Happy Lucky Gold 8 Phone

[monkeyxpress]

This will be huge for Apple because of the Chinese market (and their love of the number 8) and the 10th anniversary thing in the USA. Even if it is an iPhone 7 in a shinier case with 50% whacked onto the price, they will sell millions of the things.

I'm not expecting any real innovation though. Apple was always more marketing than tech, and it seems that part of the business has rather predictably eaten the engineering department in recent years.

Re:Happy Lucky Gold 8 Phone

[DigiShaman]

Why buy one when you can get three for extra luck. 888

Shit, I need to buy Apple stock!

Re:Happy Lucky Gold 8 Phone

[hcs_$reboot]

Apple was always more marketing than tech

You mean after Jobs death.

Re:Happy Lucky Gold 8 Phone

[Gussington]

This will be huge for Apple because of the Chinese market

Apple market share in China has been dropping steadily the last 2 years, now down to single digits. They've already caught on, the hype is over.

Only thing stupid is your hot take

[SuperKendall]

so to celebrate the anniversary of smart phones people are going to buy some "special" $1000 phone that will be worthless in less than 5 years?

How much did you spend on your computer?

How much will it be worth in five years?

Then factor in that most people now use phones more often than computers...

HMM.....

Re:Only thing stupid is your hot take

[SuperKendall]

Given the fact the battery doesn't last 5 years of normal use and isn't user replaceable it is reasonable to think that the phone will indeed be worthless.

They normally last at least three years and at that point you can replace them at any Apple store for $79 in about an hour.

How is that "worthless" again?

Now, how about computers? No such artificial limitation is imposed on them.

Funny you should mention that, because after about three years I had to replace the battery in my laptop also...

In fact the limitations are identical.

Also, nowadays, a 5 year old computer is on average just 30% slower than a brand new one.

And a five year old phone works just fine as well. So?

HMM..... (whatever it's supposed to mean)

*rolls eyes*

Re:Only thing stupid is your hot take

[Bender0x7D1]

And a five year old phone works just fine as well. So?

No, it doesn't. My 4s started becoming unusable after 2 years. If I was using my running app, and stopped to take a picture, it swapped the running app out of memory. So, if I didn't reopen the running app before continuing, it stopped recording my run.

After an update a few weeks ago, I started to notice lag when I opened or swapped apps on my 5s. Again, after about 2 years. (I bought it just before the 6 came out.)

Apparently, Apple is writing their software to run on the newer hardware, and it just overloads the old hardware. So, should I just never update my software?

Re:Only thing stupid is your hot take

[ghoul]

Old hardware Old Software. New hardware New Software. What is so difficult to understand? Noone is forcing you to buy a new phone and noone is forcing you to use the latest apps. Keep using the old versions. They work fine. BTW Apple gives you a shit load of free software and a free OS so that it can sell you new phones. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you dont update your phone every 2 years Apple will have to start charging you for updating iOS.

Names released

[Spy Handler]

They will be called:

iPhone 7S (same as 7 but with processor upgrade)
IPhone 7S Plus (same as 7S Plus with slight upgrades)
iPhone X Anniversary (same size as 7S Plus, with fullscreen OLED, wraparound glass, different metal case, no physical Home button)

Re:Names released

[david_thornley]

So, still nothing that satisfies my requirements (must fit in my shirt pockets). Maybe I'll get an SE while the getting is good.

Re: Sounds too confusing for apple users

[Anonymous Coward]

To me it sounds like they are hedging. Like we want to deliver this cool new oled screen but we are worried we cant do it in time for out anniversary so we're repackaging some iphone 7s as well, just in case

in Korea, only old people use smartphones

[Thud457]

Getting excited about a new smartphone? What is this 2007?!

How about something new and innovative?

Re:in Korea, only old people use smartphones

[DickBreath]

New and innovative? Okay, how about a super courageous move of introducing a square headphone jack -- with rounded corners. That way at least you have to fuss with it a little bit to get it plugged in.

Think of the money from everyone buying new headphones, ear buds, and accessories. Or at the very least buying a square to round headphone jack adapter or dongle.

I doubt it.

[bobm]

Anyone remember when Osborne Computers made the mistake of announcing computers before they were ready and pretty much tanked the company?

I guess that is no longer a concern, what I see Apple doing is - don't buy a Samsung since we have neat new stuff that will probably never come out.

I see this as an attempt to dampen the Samsung hype going on with the S8.

I'm not needing a phone for awhile and still use wired headphones so I'm not really on Apples radar anymore.

Re:I doubt it.

[gnasher719]

Anyone remember when Osborne Computers made the mistake of announcing computers before they were ready and pretty much tanked the company?

That wasn't what tanked them. What tanked them was that some idiot quite high up in the company discovered that they had huge numbers of motherboards for the old model lying around that were useless for the new model, and since he hated to waste the money that these motherboards cost, he ordered their manufacturing to turn them into computers. Which were unsellable, because the new model _was_ released.

Re:I doubt it.

[camh]

Apple haven't announced anything. In fact, they specifically declined to comment. Making parallels to Osborne does not make sense in the absence of an Apple announcement.

Opinion?

[DontBeAMoran]

I've heard one model is going to be called "iPhone Edition".

Is it just me, or is that a wrong usage of the word Edition? It's like nobody at Apple noticed they're missing a word in there - or they're even more afraid of Tim Cook than they were of Steve Jobs. I mean, shouldn't there be a modifier in front of it? iPhone Special Edition, iPhone OLED Edition, etc?

Coupled with the official apologies for the trash can Mac "Pro" ("Pro" my ass, eh Phil?), rumours of touch ID being at the back of the phone or even dropped altogether... if they don't correct their thinking real soon now [TM], Apple are doomed for real this time.

Re:Opinion?

[Silicon-Surfer]

Apple tops the American Customer Satisfaction Index for Smartphones and they have topped the index for PC manufacturers for the last 13 years running. They sell more product than any other company (of any kind) in the world and they are the most valuable company on earth. I think your opinion of their pending demise might be a bit premature!

Meh

[WillAffleckUW]

For some reason I'm not that enthused. Not sure why. I mean, I had an iPhone 5, then got a 5 SE.

And, in case you think I hate Apple, I have an Apple II+ and a Mac SE as well as iMacs in my garage.

Wake me when they listen to the customers.

"probably NEVER"??

[SuperKendall]

I guess that is no longer a concern, what I see Apple doing is - don't buy a Samsung since we have neat new stuff that will probably never come out.

Why would it not come out? At this point Apple has a proven track record of delivering new phones each year like clockwork. They've been reported to be working on edge to edge screens for years now. I see no reason to think they would not come out with new phones, and it's beyond obvious they would do something special for an anniversary phone.

and still use wired headphones so I'm not really on Apples radar anymore.

I only use wired headphones myself, which is why with my iPhone 7 I simply USE THE ADAPTOR THAT COMES WITH THE iPHONE FOR FREE IN THE BOX.

Your radar is broken, not Apples.

3 = iPhone, iPhone+, iSamsung

[Overzeetop]

So pretty much two phones for everyone that needs to upgrade, and one for the Samsung fans. Sounds fair.

Re:10th Anniversary Courage

[sexconker]

Samsung phones are quaint, but they can hardly be considered a rival

In addition, Samsung already provides much of the flash memory for Apple devices

Apple copied the size that Samsung made popular (the Note was phone that created the "phablet" movement and eventually Samsung drive the industry to making every phone jumbo size), and now is copying the curved glass, and the embedded fingerprint thing, and...

Apple ran out of ideas the day Steve Jobs died.

Re:Name revealed of the third iPhone

[unixisc]

No, that would be the Apple Galaxy iNote 7

Re:10th Anniversary Courage

[unixisc]

Aside from Samsung, one does have the Google Pixel and other Android phones. Windows Phones are almost dead - unless and until we see what the 'Surface Phone' is really like, and what sort of apps it attracts.