Apple's Next Handset Could Be Called The 'iPhone 6' After All ...
by Joe White
May 9, 2013
To quote Shakespeare, "what's in a name?" Here at AppAdvice, it's a question we've asked again, and again, and again. However, while most of us have, out of habit more than anything else, assumed that Apple will call its next iPhone handset the "iPhone 5S," one leaked inventory image indicates that the seventh-generation smartphone could be introduced to the world as the "iPhone 6," after all.
According to a Vodafone employee (via Stuff.tv), the U.K. carrier's inventory is currently listing a "4G iPhone 6" in its database, suggesting that Apple is planning on bypassing the lesser "5S" upgrade and heading straight to the big "6" with its forthcoming handset:
However, while inventory databases such as the one supposedly pictured above have, in the past, provided glimpses of forthcoming product names ahead of official announcements, for the time being it's worth taking this leaked image with a grain of salt. The perils of Apple's "S" naming system have indeed been discussed at length, with none other than Ken Segall (a former Apple ad creator) rightly arguing that it implies an "off-year" product, and so it would of course be a sensible move for Apple to drop the numbers and letters altogether from its iPhone handsets.
With a low-cost "budget" iPhone expected to transform Apple's smartphone from a standalone product into a "family," à la iPad, it may well be that fall sees a "new iPhone" and an "iPhone mini" appear alongside one another, in which case we'll no longer need to deliberate over the significance of Apple's yearly iPhone names.
Of course, we'll know nothing for sure until Apple announces its line of next generation iDevices, presumably at a fall event. We'll keep you updated with further information concerning the iPhone 5S as we receive it.
In the meantime, how do you feel about iPhone names?
For further industry news, see: Apple's 3D Flyover Maps Feature Says Bonjour To Paris, France, Apple And China Mobile Are Getting Closer To An iPhone Deal, and Is This Component Part Of An iPhone 5S Motherboard?.
