The iPhone is the least exciting part of the iPhone event

In eight days, we’ll get our first official look at the new iPhone, with, very likely, the sort of anticlimactic disappointment that only comes after lengthy anticipation. Like each of its predecessors, the iPhone 17 was headline news long before it existed as a product, and it’s almost impossible for a real-world object to live up to that kind of feverish, all-consuming build-up.

There’s a danger of going too far the other way, of course. It’s rather bizarre that we’ve ended up thinking this year’s iPhone launch will be actively boring, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere; the 17 Air is a bold strategy and I’m looking forward to seeing if it pays off for Apple (while feeling skeptical that it will). It’s just that the rest of the new handsets are likely to be far more cautious. One model is probably unappealing, and the other three are almost certainly iterative. Which would add up to a launch event best described as mid.

Fortunately, those four new iPhones are not, to the best of our information, the sum total of Apple’s plans for next Tuesday. And the other products in line for a refresh, aside from suffering less from the relentless rumormongering that afflicts every unreleased iPhone, are in rather more interesting and unpredictable places from which to develop.

The Apple Watch, for instance, has spent considerably less time in the rumor mill than the iPhones. We have it on good authority that Apple will update all three models (the Series, Ultra, and SE) for the first time since 2022, but we don’t have nearly as clear a picture as we do of the iPhones.

The Apple Watch is a younger device in a younger market and has marched a correspondingly shorter distance down the road to commoditisation. Whereas the smartphone has reached a point where most current high-end models are functionally almost identical (at least compared to the differences 10 years ago), the smartwatch remains wildly disparate. There are still decisions to be made. Do you focus on battery life or screen quality? Slimline or robust design? Do you plump for a rectangular or round display? Do you make the watch an accessory or a standalone device?

In some ways–and it’s worth acknowledging that the company will be battling against the natural inertia of the dominant player in a one-sided market–the Apple Watch is at an inflection point that could lead to major change. As my colleague Jason Snell has pondered, the product could follow the lead of the iPhone and iPad and split into more differentiated sub-brands. It could, in other words, get weird. And even if it doesn’t, we ought to at least see the worthwhile upgrade to the Apple Watch SE since its 2020 debut, with a larger build and more powerful processor bringing the Series experience within reach of the budget consumer.

And then there’s the AirPods Pro. Apple’s wireless earbuds aren’t traditionally associated with iPhone launch events in the way the Apple Watch is, but they frequently come out in September. We’re starting to think the third-gen AirPods Pro may be announced alongside the iPhone 17 or, if not, should at least follow a week or two afterwards in their own separate press release.

The AirPods Pro 3 will arrive a full three years after the second-gen model first appeared (although we did get a minor USB-C update in September 2023) and should be worth the wait. We expect a heart rate sensor, improvements to the all-important noise-cancellation feature, and very likely live translation. Plus a redesigned case! We’ve been hearing for years about Apple’s plans to make its high-end earbuds more of an all-day health wearable, and this could very well be a major step in that transition.

Tech websites love to write about the iPhone because it’s been the biggest product in the world for well over a decade. But the smartphone’s days in the spotlight are numbered, and the interesting part is working out what comes next. One candidate is the wearable, or, perhaps more plausibly, the set of multiple integrated wearables. Which means that when the iPhone 17 leaves the stage next Tuesday and the Apple Watch and AirPods take its spotlight, we could be seeing a glimpse of the future. Which is a lot more important, when it comes down to it, than a redesigned camera module.

Foundry

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

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Podcast of the week

On the latest Macworld podcast, we give an overview of what to expect at the upcoming September launch event, as well as discuss Apple’s new three-year iPhone plan. Plus, the worst thing that happened this week, this week in Apple history, and more.

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

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The rumor mill

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