The iPhone 12 despite being delayed, launched with great fanfare. New design! New colors! 5G! LiDAR! But after the dust has settled, curiousity about the new iPhone has surface. First, will it be iPhone 12s or 13? What will it look like? Most likely what the iPhone 12 is going to look but in different color. Most likely, the colors will be blue and yellow. How do I know this? Trends.

Slow Design Iteration


40 year difference. Technology has change and updated, but design layout is exactly the same.

And same goes for iPhone 1 (2007) vs iPhone SE-2 (2020). Technology updated but the layout is exactly the same. The Volume / silent switch, the home button. Even the icons does not change much.

Something outside of Apple but make great icons: the Porsche 911. 50 years difference. Technology updated and capabilities increased, but the design layout is pretty much the same. iPhone is no different.

Apple does not change their design every year and that is intentional. They produced very high quality phones and the design is well thought out. Making high quality phones require every expensive tooling. In fact, they move popular line into lower rebrand budget phone like the iPhone SE which uses the some body shape as the iPhone 8 and the front screen from the iPhone 6.

Another reason not to change the design is to make it more recognizable. This is call the trade dress. Used to be iPhone trade dress is the rectangle slab of glass with a circle at the bottom. and in the sea of android phones, you’ll instantly recognize that Apple iPhone because of the home button which has a distinct size and shape.

Camera Bump


The camera bump will be exactly like the old model. The internals might change, but the bump itself won’t change. Apple might make a better ultra-wide (there’s rumors about this) or a better telephoto, but most likely won’t be a fourth camera lens on the iPhone. The reality is, 13mm equivalent lens is the pinnacle of lens design. It is far far harder to make a good ultra wide than a telephoto lens. Good in terms of color accuracy, sharpness and texture rendering. Adding another telephoto lens or 100x zoom lens is nice, but to be truthful, how often do you actually use telephoto function in the phone? How useful 100x zoom is on the phone?

One thing you should notice is that the camera bump is oversize for it’s use. Part of it is a design decision. Another part is for future growth. Let’s say Apple wanted to add more image stabilization, or make the sensor bigger, they can make the lens bigger without making the camera bump bigger. So the design will stay the same.

Colors

I say the new colors that will be included is Yellow and Blue. Why? Because that’s the Patone color of the year for 2021. And Apple in one way or another, has added Patone Color of the year in their iPhone line up.


Coral was Patone color of the year in 2019, but two months before that, Apple release a coral iPhone Xs.

Classic Blue is the Patone Color of the year for 2020, which somehow released for the iPhone 12.

Patone Color of the year for 2021 is Illuminating Yellow and Ultimate Gray, so you can bet the next iPhone will have these colors.

Conclusion

For the next iPhone (iPhone 12s or 13) will have the exact design lines like the iPhone 12 of today, but with updated specs. Most likely new camera systems (the bump itself won’t change), and the colors yellow and gray. Portless might be possible.

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