Apple to Introduce Major iPhone Redesign Every 3 Years: Report

In a new development, Apple has reportedly changed its iPhone product refresh cycle, and will now introduce major redesigns after a gap of three years. Unlike its traditional two years, Apple will now wait for three years to bring in major changes to the iPhone.

This change in the product refresh cycle has been attributed to a slowing market, and low innovation in smartphone functions. Major enhancements have little scope in the smartphone periphery, and hence Apple has changed its strategy.

This is why, all the iPhone 7 leaks show little change with respect to design, apart from the shift of antenna bands. Traditionally, Apple introduces an evolutionary change with its iPhone 's' models, and a revolutionary change with the new numeric. We saw a completely new design with the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6s saw hardware and software upgrades with no visible design changes, and users expected the iPhone 7 to go through a complete makeover.

However, Nikkei.com reports that the big change will only come with the iPhone release in 2017, which has previously been reported to be called the iPhone 8 instead of the iPhone 7s. The iPhone 7 will see no drastic change. The report confirms that there will be upgrades in camera, and battery capacity. It reiterates past rumours of the iPhone 7 being water resistant, and also asserts that the 3.5mm audio jack will be removed. It also hints at the rumoured third variant by stating 'A high-end version of the model will give users better-quality photo capabilities via correction functions.'

Whether all of this is true remains to be seen. So far, rumoured specs include an A10 processor, dual camera setup and a 3GB RAM on the larger iPhone 7, and an upgrade to a new 32GB base variant finally ditching the 16GB storage option.