Apple had a big year in 2017. The company released a few new smartphones including a brand new flagship device (the iPhone X, honoring the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone), and also introduced its augmented reality development platform. These developments all came in the autumn, undoubtedly aiming for holiday season sales, and they’re sure to bring instant rewards to the world’s biggest tech company. However, they’ve also helped to get people excited about where Apple might go from here.
We’ve thought of four specific reasons to be excited for the future of Apple on mobile devices.
1 – iPhone X Shows That Beauty Is A Priority
If you were to sum up the physical changes for the iPhone X, they’d mostly relate to beauty. The phone’s screen has effectively been stretched, getting rid of the bezels so that the quality of the screen can be fully shown off. It almost looks like something out of a graphics concept; indeed, one review noted that it basically looks like a living 3D render. The iPhone X’s beauty is a subjective matter, and not everyone is going to find it to be the most attractive fan. But it’s crystal clear that Apple has prioritized the actual look of the device, and that has to get you excited moving forward. This is a company that appears to be at its best when it’s focused on making sure products appeal in subtle, impactful ways, and as long as that’s true the iPhone’s future is bright.
2 – The Future Of AR Is Boundless
The most exciting development from Apple this year was arguably the aforementioned augmented reality development platform. We already know that Apple is likely working on glasses to make the experience even more immersive – but even without glasses, developers now have the tools to create an incredible future. In gaming, we’re liable to see adaptations of popular mobile titles or even stripped down console games on AR. We’ve seen the gigantic casino gaming industry embrace the latest video streaming technologies to make more visual games that would also translate well in AR. And this is to say nothing of developments beyond gaming! AR can simulate art, design, learning exercises, and countless other activities. We’ve only scratched the surface, and Apple will be leading the way.
3 – Innovation Is Back On The Table
For a few years there – notably, following the passing of visionary CEO Steve Jobs – Apple more or less stopped innovating. New iPhones were released with relative incremental improvements and relatively superfluous physical changes. The sizes of the phones changed now and then, as did some of the materials used, but the iPhone has basically looked the same for a long time. The iPhone X is not a radical new design, but it’s different enough from the last few models to make it clear that innovation is back on the table for Apple. There are already rumors to this effect as well. For instance, there’s a lot of chatter online that Apple is working on bringing back the flip phone and combining it with smartphone features and technology (it might look something like this). That’s quite an idea, and one that would shake up the mobile market considerably.
4 – Product Lines May Replace Products
The very fact that Apple released the iPhone X in addition to a more standard update (the iPhone 8 and its larger counterpart, the iPhone 8-Plus) is perhaps the biggest clue to Apple’s future in the mobile arena. The company has flirted with turning mobile phones into mobile phone product lines before, and now it seems to be on the table. People got a choice this year between three brand new iPhones. So who’s to say future models won’t be additions rather than replacements? For example, if Apple really did built a smartphone, might it be available alongside the iPhone X, rather than instead of it? In short, there’s some indication Apple may yet be expanding its presence in the mobile market.
