What happened to the iPhone 9?

Leap to “X”

During the September 2017 iPhone event, Apple announced iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, these are expected upgrades to the specs set in the previous iPhone 6 and 7. In particular, these iPhones come with a Home button like all iPhones released before.

At the end of the presentation, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced “one more thing” and launched iPhone X, marking an impressive new direction for the iPhone line. iPhone X with an edge-to-edge screen without a home button, an OLED display, an improved camera, and Face ID debuts among other features.

During the presentation, Cook highlighted the huge technological leap before the iPhone 8, saying that the iPhone X is “the biggest step forward since the original iPhone”. He also mentioned the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone’s release in 2007: “The first iPhone revolutionized a decade of technology and changed the world in the process. Now, ten years then, it’s fitting that we’re here, on this day, to unveil a product that will drive technology for the next decade.”

The press often interprets this saying to mean the name “iPhone X” (with “X” being the Roman numeral for “10”), as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the iPhone (in line with previous rumors). announced), but Apple never specifically said that. In fact, expert Jony Ive said the technology for the iPhone X had been in development for two years, and that the iPhone’s 10th anniversary was a “great coincidence.”

Aside from the anniversaries discussion, there are some obvious marketing reasons to get ahead of the iPhone 9. The iPhone X introduced a new premium lineup alongside the much higher-priced iPhone 8 and 8 Plus ( $999 base price versus $699 for iPhone 8). If Apple released “iPhone 8” and “iPhone 9” simultaneously, it would be confusing – why immediately make the iPhone 8 obsolete? Instead, Apple puts low-end and high-end flagship iPhone models side by side and clearly labels them as different product categories.

That’s great, but what about the iPhone 9?

All that being said, Apple could easily come back next year and release the iPhone 9 as a successor to the iPhone 8. But the company hasn’t done so. Instead, Apple ditched the iPhone X and released the iPhone XR as a low-end flagship model (after the iPhone 8) and the iPhone XS as a high-end flagship phone (completely replacing the iPhone X.) The name is said to be meaningless, but Apple expert Phil Schiller considers it a reference to sports cars. Instead of introducing the iPhone 9, Apple continued to sell the iPhone 8 for several years and discontinued production in 2020.

In that sense, the second generation iPhone SE (launched in April 2020) launched shortly after Apple dropped the iPhone 8 can be seen as the spirit of the “iPhone 9”. It retains the iPhone 8’s form factor, including the legacy Home button with Touch ID.

People have speculated about Apple avoiding the number 9 for superstitious reasons (similar to the Windows 9) rumours, or using the “X” as a marketing ploy to encourage upgrades, but both theories are not supported by any evidence from authoritative sources. In the end, a name like “iPhone 9” was just a marketing term and Apple never saw a need for it, so it never came to be.

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