A new report from Business Insider discusses a comment from an Apple employee stationed in Apple’s Israeli offices that the 2017 iPhone will carry the moniker “iPhone 8.” While normal Apple naming convention would indicate the next iPhone should be named the “iPhone 7s,” the 10th anniversary handset is expected to boast a redesign that includes an all-glass case, Home button encased in an edge-to-edge screen, and more.
Speaking to Business Insider outside Apple’s Herzliya office at Maskit Street 12, the Apple employee said staff in Israel are working on what’s coming “next” in Apple’s product line, giving a specific mention to “iPhone 8.”
The worker used the term “iPhone 8” unprompted in our conversation. That was interesting because the next logical name for the iPhone to be released in 2017 should be “iPhone 7s.” [The] iPhone 8 isn’t due until 2018. Apple has a two-year development cycle for new iPhones.
As the iPhone 7 was at best an incremental “s” type of update, many expect the next iPhone to not follow the usual naming conventions, carrying instead a moniker more befitting a 10th anniversary device that is expected to offer a radical redesign and much improved technology. Names thrown against the wall so far include: “iPhone 8,” “iPhone X,” or even just simply “iPhone.”
While Apple’s Herzliya facility is likely an important one in the company’s scheme of things, there is no reason to believe the workers there would have any special insight about next year’s iPhone. There are approximately 800 employees at the four-year-old office, which was setup following Apple acquisition of two Israeli startups, flash memory designer Anobit in 2012 and 3D sensor developer PrimeSense in 2013. Apple has since acquired Israeli camera firm LinX.
We report this merely as a piece of the rumors puzzle pie, and like a Salted Caramel pie, it should be taken with the proverbial, (and in the pie’s case, literal), helping of salt.
