Here Comes the New iPhone (Please Let There Be Surprises)

The day has finally come: it’s September 12th and tech reporters and Apple cognoscenti will soon pile into the brand new Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus to hear all about those new iPhones. But as any iPhone app developer who has not been in a coma over the past few months will tell you, they are expecting relatively few surprises. Leaks have always been a big part of the Apple hype cycle, but this time it really seems like all the good stuff is already out on the table. Of course, the loyal Apple fans are still holding out hope for some twists (and are excited to finally get their hands on the new iPhones). But there is a sense heading into the event that the company is not going to blow our minds as it celebrates the tenth anniversary of the phone that changed it all.

By now, it’s no secret to iPhone app developers that there are three new iPhones on the way: the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the $1,000+ luxury iPhone X. The latter’s steep price can be blamed in part on the crisp OLED display courtesy of Samsung (according to reliable sources). These displays are also rumored to be in short supply, which means there could be delays on the X’s release. Apple is also ditching bezels for the most part, with only the notch for the front-facing camera breaking up the sleek display.

Los Angeles iPhone app developers expect a lot of hype around the 3D face-scanning technology and the ARKit, given that they are among the biggest and flashiest changes to the iPhone family. We will be most impressed by the face-scanning technology if it turns out to be secure enough to connect with Apple Pay — a stretch, perhaps, but it’s something that has repeatedly come up in gossip surrounding the new iPhone. As for ARKit, it will give Apple “the largest AR platform in the world.” When ARKit was unveiled at this year’s WWDC, there was no indication that Apple views the camera as the new automatic search function like Google and Facebook do. But they clearly believe augmented reality is the future, and the demos so far have been pretty exciting.

Plenty more will be revealed in the next couple hours, including stuff about 4K Apple TVs, the new Watch, the HomePod, and more. Maybe there will be a few surprises for iPhone app developers. It would be nice if the reports from the event didn’t read the same as the tired previews. After all, this is the tenth anniversary for the iPhone, a product that really did change the world.