5 Educated Guesses for What the Next iPhone Will Be Called

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5 Educated Guesses for What the Next iPhone Will Be Called

The next iPhone will be launched next week on Sept. 12—nothing out of the ordinary about that. However, this year we are expecting not just a new iPhone, but actually two new iPhones (and even three counting the Plus model). As this is the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, Apple has planned for the release of a new iPhone that is a ground-up redesign of the iPhone we’ve all grown accustomed to.

Rumors about the new iPhone include everything from the removal of the Home button to a completely bezel-less display. In fact, at this point, we know quite a bit about what we think this new iPhone will be like.

The one thing that remains up in the air is the name. As you can imagine, when Apple wants to introduce an even spiffier iPhone model to a line that already includes a normal iPhone and a larger Plus model, the naming scheme can be a little difficult to figure out.

Here are five guesses we’ve got, ordered from least likely to most likely:

5. 10th Anniversary iPhone

Apple will no doubt make a big deal of the fact that this is the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone. Expect a lot of well-earned navel-gazing and nostalgia on the impact the iPhone has had on human life for the past ten years. For that reason, there is a small chance that Apple might go simply with, the “10th anniversary iPhone.”

While calling it that might do the job of marketing the point of it, it feels a bit too clumsy for a company like Apple to go with.

4. iPhone 8

For much of the year, the 10th anniversary iPhone has been referred to as the “iPhone 8,” while the standard iPhones have been referred to as the iPhone 7s and the iPhone 7s Plus. However, I never thought this would actually work out to be the real names of these new devices—because how weird would it be to sell both a 7s and an 8 at the same time?

For that reason, the chances that the 10th anniversary iPhone will be called the iPhone 8 is fairly low. Instead, recent reports have indicated that we’ll be getting an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus as the standard iPhones, due to the somewhat large changes in design. That doesn’t help us any with what this other iPhone will be called though. I know, I know—this is getting confusing.

3. iPhone Edition

This might not make much sense at first glance, but an iPhone “Edition” actually fits in with recent naming schemes from Apple. Two years ago, the Apple Watch Edition came out as a glitzy, premium version of the Apple Watch. With reports indicating that the new iPhone may be over $1000, there is a decent chance that Apple could go this way. Perhaps the lineup will look like this: the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone 8 Edition.

That being said, I really dislike this one and think it’s a pretty weak descriptor of what you’re paying all that extra money for.

2. The “new” iPhone

This name isn’t one that I’ve heard others bring up, but Apple has used the “new” signifier a couple times already: namely, with the “”new iPad that came out earlier this year and the “new” MacBook that came out a few years ago.

In fact, the only reason why I’m not putting all my chips behind this idea is that the idea of selling both a “new” iPhone and an iPhone 8 at the same time seems pretty strange. With that being said, calling it simply the iPhone more as a reboot of the original seems like a pretty logical and Apple-esque way to move forward.

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1. iPhone X

At this point, the best and most likely naming option we have for this new iPhone is the iPhone X. Not only does the X represent the 10th anniversary, it also represents a significant milestone in iterations of the iPhone. Whether or not it would be referred to as the iPhone “ex” or the iPhone “ten” is still up for debate, but the X moniker is a callback to older Apple products, as well as unique differentiator from the other iPhones.

Even with all that said, I’m not completely convinced of any of the mentioned options. I have no doubt that Apple could make any of them could work even if we think it’s silly in the moment (don’t forget how much we all made fun of the original iPad’s name).

We’ll find out for certain next week when Apple unveils its newest lineup of highly-anticipated smartphones.

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