Apple introduced four new smartphones at its annual hardware presentation last year – iPhone 12, 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max. These four handsets, all of which use the same version of iOS and a super-fast processor, but different screen sizes, Color options and a range of cameras tie in with the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro lines introduced a year earlier. So logic dictates that an iPhone 13 will hit the market this year.
However, this cannot happen.
Of the possible names for the next-gen iPhone series, tipsters seem to think that the iPhone 12S is the most likely. Apple has used the “S” suffix in the past to indicate that its iPhone will have the same industrial design but will include under-the-hood improvements. For years, the Californian company alternated between a numbered publication and a smaller “S” year. However, this pattern has become much less predictable.
When Apple was supposed to be releasing an iPhone 7S a few years ago, it instead decided to brand its new model as the iPhone 8. While the iPhone XS followed the iPhone X, the iPhone 11 was followed by the iPhone 12. Leakster Jon Prosser, known as the presenter of the hugely popular Front Page Tech Show on YouTube, is one of the most vocal tipsters about the iPhone 12S. According to Prosser, Apple will then skip “iPhone 13” completely – and bring an iPhone 14 onto the market at the end of 2022.
The horror surrounding iPhone 13 branding is understandable. The number 13’s association with bad luck has some very real consequences.
Property developers often struggle to move apartments on the thirteenth floor, hotels often miss the 13th floor entirely to avoid this problem, and couples avoid getting married like the plague on the 13th of the month – although they often get a cheaper rate have because of its unpopular status. In fact, there are film studios trying to beat tickets to a movie on Friday the 13th and psychologists treating patients for triskaidecaphobia – the fear of the number 13.
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It’s true that Apple has never shied away from using “13” in its branding. The Cupertino-based company has released both its A13 Bionic chipset and iOS 13 in the past few years. However, the iPhone is much more popular for Apple. This single product generated nearly half of Apple’s sales and is one of the most popular consumer products ever launched. In other words – it’s not the kind of success story you’d want to fumble about because of consumer superstitions.
With some analysts pointing to the introduction of a new foldable form factor for the iPhone range in late 2022 or 2023, it is possible that Apple will completely turn the branding of its iPhone on its head in the coming years. Do we really expect the iPhone 23S to hit stores in a couple of years?
When Samsung introduced its foldable handset, the smartphone series was renamed “Galaxy Fold” and the numbering system was reset. While a Galaxy S21 is currently still on offer, many analysts expect this line of products to merge with the Galaxy Note in the coming years. If this is accurate, it means that both Samsung flagship smartphone series are assigned a relatively small number, so they can climb each digit again. In order to prevent the number from constantly increasing, Microsoft has decided to leave the Windows operating system permanently on “Windows 10”.
Many expected that Apple would drop the numbers associated with its iPhone with the introduction of the “iPhone X”, even though the company stated that “X” was the Roman numeral for “10” and not a new branding exercise. The company previously attempted to discard numbers with its “The New iPad,” which came out in 2012, to the confusion of almost everyone (and led most people to refer to it colloquially as “iPad 3” anyway. The numbers are Apple has since used year of release to distinguish between models, using the same convention as the MacBook range.
Apple typically hosts its annual iPhone launch in September. So it won’t be long before we find out if number 13 is unlikely for one of the richest companies in the history of the planet.
