Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference begins on Monday, and although we won’t see any new iPhone models at the event, the internet has done a pretty great job of spoiling everything that we expect Apple to reveal this fall. iPhone 13 rumors and leaks have popped up with increasing regularity in recent weeks, and in an investors’ note this week, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives corroborated much of what we’ve heard.
In his note, Ives said he and his colleagues have “increased confidence” the iPhone 13 series will be the first to offer 1TB of storage. Both the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max top out at 512GB of storage, but Apple will apparently double the storage capacity on the iPhone 13 Pro. Furthermore, Ives expects all four iPhone 13 models to feature LiDAR as well.
Wedbush has made claims about 1TB storage options and LiDAR across the product line previously, but the fact that Ives is doubling down makes it clear that the investment firm analyst has yet to hear anything that would sway his opinion about Apple’s plans.
In addition to more storage and LiDAR capabilities, we have also heard that the iPhone 13 models will feature larger batteries than their predecessors. A leaked image on Twitter claimed that the iPhone 13 mini will feature a 2,406mAh battery, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro will feature 3,095mAh batteries, and the iPhone 13 Pro Max will feature a 4,352mAh battery.
As for the design, the most significant change we expect to see on the iPhone 13 lineup is a smaller notch. The notch has been unchanged since it debuted on the iPhone X in 2017, but Apple is rumored to be moving the earpiece speaker up against the top bezel while squeezing the sensors and cameras in the housing closer to one another. This, plus smaller VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips to power Face ID, should allow Apple to shrink the notch.
iOS 15 will undoubtedly be the highlight of the WWDC 2021 keynote next week, but according to Ives, Apple might have a few surprises in store for the conference as well:
On the hardware front, we expect a few surprises to come out of the event including a new MacBook Pro release (14-inch and 16-inch display driven by the M1 chip) and hints around upcoming initiatives with some breadcrumbs dropped as developers crave bigger AR functionality in the works for the coming years. From a product intro timeline, we continue to believe next summer in 2022 Apple will unveil its long awaited Apple Glasses and will be a flagship new product introduction followed by the Apple Car (2024 target release date, expect more news/partnerships this summer on this front) with WWDC laying the groundwork for the software/services driven evolution in Cupertino.
WWDC 2021 begins on June 7th, and you can tune in for the keynote presentation at 1:00 p.m. ET.
