Short of incoming CEO John Ternus deciding Apple should pivot to becoming a literal fruit company, there will be an Apple event in September. And that means new iPhones. Here’s what I’m hoping we’ll see…
A crease-free iPhone Ultra
Fold most materials in half and they’ll crease. That can be OK for paper. It’s a disaster for a phone display. Early folding phones made that painfully obvious, with fragile screens and very visible bumps. Things have improved, but even the best foldables still have a crease you can see and feel. Rumors suggest Apple has cracked this problem. Let’s hope so.
An iPhone that goes beyond
We already know pretty much what the iPhone Ultra will look like. The big unknown is the price – aside from that this phone won’t be cheap. It’s quite possible it’ll cost MacBook Pro money. If that’s the case, it needs to do far more than a standard iPhone.
There must be some form of multitasking on the big internal display – it can’t just show one “wider” iPhone app. Rumors suggest there won’t be an iPad-style windowing system, but there may be a side-by-side app view. I’d also like to see a desktop-like interface when the Ultra’s connected to an external display, but that seems unlikely.
A new iPhone Pro camera
Last year’s iPhone Pro introduced a comically large camera bump. (Apple called it a “plateau”. It wasn’t fooling anyone.) But it existed for a reason, giving Apple more space for tech – including a beefed-up camera.
Rumors suggest the iPhone 18 Pro will get an even larger bump to accommodate an even better camera system. Good. Pro-grade devices should prioritize functionality over thinness. That would further make the Pro feel genuinely more professional for photography – and help justify the likely higher price.
A boring Apple Watch update
Apple Watch updates are often criticized for being iterative rather than revolutionary. But if the Series 12 is basically a Series 11 with a faster chip and better battery life, I’m all for it. In a cost-of-living crisis and an era when it’s increasingly apparent the things we buy should last for longer, we don’t need an all-new design that renders every existing Apple Watch band redundant. Forcing everyone to start again would be an unnecessary waste of money and resources.
Surprisingly not-awful price rises
Apple prices shot up in July, shortly after outgoing CEO Tim Cook said increases were inevitable. The iPhone avoided that – for now. It’s unlikely the upcoming iPhone Pro will escape a price hike, though, and it may not even get a boost in storage or memory, given the sharp rise in component prices over recent months. My hope is that increases will at least fall short of horrendous, and that the iPhone 17 will keep its current price until it’s replaced next year.
Fewer ads
Apple seems increasingly obsessed with ads, and they’re a reliable way to make money. But they run counter to years of Apple philosophy. Steve Jobs once said Apple builds “products that we want for ourselves […] and we just don’t want ads.” Tim Cook later said the customer shouldn’t become the product. How that’s changed.
My hope for incoming CEO John Ternus is he remembers Apple’s strength comes from a combination of hardware, software, and user experience. Compromising any one of those weakens the entire thing. I’m hoping for any sign Apple understands that it needs to be best, not “least bad” when it comes to ads. Sadly, that wish is probably the least likely on this list to come true.