What if the iPhone 7 is boring? What if everything we’ve heard and seen so far paints a near-complete picture of everything Apple has planned for its next-generation iPhone lineup? This is probably our first look at a real iPhone 7, and what if it turns out to be right on the money? Everything we wanted to know about the iPhone 7 might have just leaked, and what if it all ends up being true?
Let’s all step back for a moment and take a look at this horrific, catastrophic, disastrous worst-case scenario.
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Doom and gloom surrounding Apple’s iPhone business has reached new heights. People apparently thought gravity ceased to exist in Cupertino, and sales of Apple’s smartphone lineup would continue to ascend forever. This of course is not the case and what goes up must come down. Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch was met with tremendous pent-up demand from users in search of iPhones with larger displays, and the more recent iPhone 6s and 6s Plus simply couldn’t keep up.
iPhone sales are now in decline — ahh! — having dropped to 51 million units in the first quarter this year. 51 million sure is a lot of iPhones, but Apple sold 61 million in the same quarter a year earlier. That’s a huge drop off and Apple shares took a big hit as a result. What’s more, the decline is expected to continue for several more quarters, possibly even until Apple’s huge iPhone redesign launches in 2017, 10 years after the first iPhone debuted.
But I think the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have more potential than many people assume.
Let’s go back to playing “what if?” What if this is indeed our first look at the iPhone 7? It will feature a sleeker and slimmer housing than its predecessor, though its overall design will remain largely unchanged. And what if all the specs we’re expecting pan out? We’d only be looking at a flagship smartphone with an even more powerful processor, more RAM for the Plus model, much more storage (with 32GB instead of 16GB at the entry level), a brand new version of Siri, and an even better camera on the iPhone 7 with a completely new dual lens configuration on the Plus model.
Boy oh boy, wouldn’t that be boring?
The iPhone 7 described above will probably leapfrog smartphones announced earlier in the year and become the most powerful smartphone in the world once again. It will be thinner and its antenna lines will be less off-putting. It’ll also feature an improved version of one of the best smartphone cameras in the world.
Oh, and it will be released just as tens of millions of people are coming off of their two-year contracts after having purchased an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus back in 2014. Then, in each of the quarters that follow, millions more will see their iPhone 6 contracts expire.
Next year’s new iPhone is shaping up to feature the massive redesign people are waiting for, with rumors of a new edgeless OLED display and no home button swirling. It’s entirely possible that these rumors could impact iPhone 7 sales to some degree. But as doom and gloom continue to swirl in the media, keep in mind that the media doesn’t dictate consumer behavior. People still love iPhones and they still want new iPhones that are better than their current iPhones. There’s your worst-case scenario.
