Series: Sense of iPhones
Part 3 of 3
Apple is facing a crisis befitting a kindergartner.
It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3, except that the series has stretched into double digits and, worse, into Roman numerals with the iPhone X (say 10).
The solution is to do away with the old system and replace it with a familiar, sustainable model-year approach.
After all, the digit deviation stumps adults as well as 5-year-olds.
Apple should avoid Roman numerals and double digits when it announces new iPhones today. Three models are expected. Using names suggested by the first article in this series, Apple should use model years and names such as 2019 iPhone, 2019 iPhone L and 2019 iPhone Plus.
Enthusiasts and a few others know to say “10” when speaking of an iPhone X. Few are clued-in on the secret. They say what they read: “ex.” The haters say ex with a jubilant sneer.
Take the past four years. The larger iPhone 6 of 2014, led to the iPhone 6s, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 8, each with a larger Plus variant. Apple skipped the iPhone 9.
The company should clear up the confusion by using the system employed by automakers and television programmers for decades.
When announcing the fall lineup, simply add the coming year as a prefix to the model name.
Today, Apple would be smart to call the iPhone X’s successor the 2019 iPhone. If not this year, then next, when extending the old numbering scheme would be even more confounding.
This provides a marketing advantage to Apple, as well, although the most valuable publicly owned company has plenty: Buyers in September through the end of the year would hear that they are buying next year’s iPhone.
Indeed, over a new model’s year, the bulk of its sale time would take place in 2019.
The system is simple, and people understand how it works. Apple should make a 2019 iPhone, a 2020 iPhone and so on, released the September before the designated year.