Apple is known for keeping future versions of its products (especially the iPhone) a close secret.  Is it possible to predict what the iPhone 6, 7, and 8 might be like? The fact is, using the science of Hard Trends, we know a lot about those future iPhone versions yet to be created and released.

Think about it. Will the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 7 have a faster processor than the iPhone 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1?  And the answer is, “Yes. Thanks to technology innovations that keep Moore’s Law valid, new electronic devices always have faster chips.” 

Will future iPhones allow users to send and store even more of our digital stuff in the cloud, or is the cloud getting full? And, as we all know, Apple will have no problem in creating more room for us to put more in the cloud, and it will be increasingly easier to do that.

iPhone users have had 3G wireless and with the iPhone 5 they will now have 4G lite. Is that it? Or might we be able to predict what they’ll call the next one? Of course…there will be 5G, followed by 6G and 7G. I’ve been graphing the predictable progress of bandwidth, storage and processing power for thirty years and I can assure you we’re not at the end of that at all.

Will we have better 3D maps and navigation on the iPhone 6 and 7? Of course!

Will Siri, Apple’s intelligent electronic assistant, be more human like and better at answering your questions with the iPhone 6, 7 and 8? Absolutely!

Will there be an even better form factor and display, or is the new display the best it could ever be? And the answer is, “Humans have a way of making things better and better and better in surprisingly predictable ways.”

When you think the future is completely unpredictable when it comes to technology, ask yourself, “What do I know about the future based on the evolutionary stages I’ve observed in the past?” You’ll surprise yourself with what you might find out.

The type of predictable change I have been describing I call linear change, it is one way. Once you get a smart phone you will not go back to a dumb phone. This is very different than cyclical change such as climate; after summer comes fall, or seasonal recurring events such New Years, or the fluctuations of the stock market. Both linear and cyclical change types produce “hard trends,” trends that we know will happen, once we take the time to think about and identify them.

So when you’re starting to think about a new version of anything, whether it’s the iPhone 6, 7, or 8, or whether it’s some other technology, look at the hard trends and what you already know. The answers you can accurately reveal about the future will astound you.