My Thoughts on the 10-year Anniversary iPhone

The iPhone 7 was just released (I got a matte black 7), but I’m already thinking about the next one.

And so is everyone else.

The iPhone 7 was a punt (a very successful one I think), and I think they’re going to do something spectacular for the next one.

Here are some ideas I have about possibilities for the 2017 / 10-year anniversary edition of the iPhone.

1. I think they could drop the “iPhone” name, and go to something more foundational. “Phone” comes from “Telephone”, and our mobile devices have kind of moved beyond that. Plus, the watch is not an iWatch. It’s just “Apple Watch”. So even if they keep the concept of “phone”, they might drop “iPhone” and just go with “Apple Phone”. If they’re more ambitious (ahem, courageous) it’d be something more like “Communicator” or “Mobile”.

2. They drop the forehead, chin, and home button. It’s one piece of glass and you authenticate anywhere (and constantly) by fingerprint on the glass. You will also get iris auth as well, and probably lots of other technologies as well. Think about UnifyID, but tied to the mobile platform. I wrote about this here.

3. They’ll do wireless charging, but the question is whether they do it in an innovative way or they just perfect the way others are doing it. If there’s a pad you lay your phone on, that’d be nice. But I’m hoping they’re going to get crazy. Ambient recharging. You are just in your home office, or by your nightstand, and it’s charging. There is evidence that this is what they’re working on. Question is–can they get it ready in time.

4. The other thing I think they’ll probably do is introduce AR to the scene. I honestly have ZERO idea what that’ll mean for Apple. Seems to me that it needs a visor or lens, like I’m writing about in my book. I don’t see how they implement that using their existing platform. But I think that’s a candidate for the big 10-year release.

One thing I hope they do is return to more of an industrial design. The iPhone 4 and 5 felt infinitely better than the 6 and 7 does. It feels SO solid in your hand. It’s a thing of beauty.

The 6 and 7 models look like everyone else’s at this point, and even worse they’re slippery. Using the volume buttons to snap images on the 4 and 5 was a delight. With the 6 and 7 it’s an Apple Care event.

I think they’re going to seriously rock the industry with the 10-year release, and I think it’ll come in the form of at least some of these features.

We’ll see. Can’t wait.