Three Wishes for the iPhone 7

There's no doubt that the iPhone is one of the most popular consumer devices ever made, but to some extent it may be a victim of its own success. We now have all the screen sizes we need, from 4 inches to 5.5 inches, and all of them have pixels so small that adding more won't make the image any sharper to the human eye. The processors are fast enough for any application you might want to run, and the cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth radios deliver enough connectivity options and bandwidth. All iPhone models have fingerprint recognition and Apple Pay capability, and battery capacity is good enough for most people to get through their entire day without concern.

So what new features can Apple put into the next iteration of the iPhone to keep the platform fresh and compel current users to upgrade? Certainly another bump in processor speed or memory capacity isn't going to be very interesting, although it is probably inevitable. If I could ask for three enhancements, these are what they would be.

Wish #1: WiGig

Apple should add a new radio capability to the iPhone 7 called WiGig. Also known as 802.11ad, this technology uses the 60 GHz frequency band to transmit data at up to 7Gb/s. It won't replace your LTE or Wi-Fi connection, because these high frequency signals can't pass through walls, but it will provide several valuable capabilities.

The most immediately useful of these is the ability to watch movies streamed right from your phone to your TV in full fidelity with no messy cables or adapters. Imagine, taking your iPhone into the family room, opening up the Netflix app, and playing a 4K movie to your big screen TV without juggling remote controls. Then imagine going over to a friend's house and watching that same movie on his TV. You can try this today with AirPlay over Wi-Fi, but the video may be choppy and 4K resolution is not supported so it's 1080P at best. This might be the set top box killer we've all been waiting for.

It will also allow video games to display on the TV while using the iPhone as a controller. As an option, a Bluetooth game controller can be coupled to the iPhone to allow a more conventional game console experience where the iPhone replaces the console completely.

WiGig can allow the iPhone to drive a tablet display when you need more screen real estate; for example, while reading a magazine or book. The user can interact with the tablet while their iPhone is sitting on their desk or nestled in their pocket. Apple could create a 'dumbed down' version of the iPad for this, or just add this capability into new iPads.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it will allow the iPhone to be used with a high-resolution desktop monitor. When coupled with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, this could allow your iPhone to be your only computer. Apps could be extended to support a mouse, just as they have been extended to support a pencil on the iPad Pro. You would never have to sync your iPhone with your PC because all of the data would stay on the iPhone. Imagine traveling without a laptop computer, just using available WiGig terminals in hotels, offices, and other workspaces when you need a more traditional PC interface.

Wish #2: Visual Unlock

While the fingerprint reader has been a useful addition to the iPhone, I think we all have experienced the frustration of it not working from time to time, as well as the awkwardness of using it when your hands are full, dirty, covered in gloves, or just not conveniently positioned.

Apple should use the front-facing camera to enable the iPhone to be unlocked visually, by examining your facial features and getting enough of a sample with small movements and eye blinks to know that it's not being fed a static image.

Wish #3: Remove the Connectors

It's time to eliminate the anachronism of electrical sockets. The iPhone's Lightning connector and the 3.5mm audio jack should be removed, because there's just no need for them anymore.

Getting rid of these metal sockets will allow more freedom in physical design and, with minor changes to cover the volume, mute, sleep, and home buttons, allow the phone to survive serious encounters with water and dirt. Imagine not worrying about taking your iPhone to the beach or pool. Imagine being able to clean your phone by sticking it under running water.

The audio jack is made redundant by Bluetooth. I'm sure this will make some audiophiles choke, but for the vast majority of people Bluetooth is a better option because it is free of cables and provides comparable audio quality at the range of a normal headphone cable.

The Lightning connector can be eliminated by adding inductive charging to the iPhone; just lay the phone on top of a charger to top up the battery. Besides charging, the only other reason for Lightning is fast data transfer, but WiGig has that covered.

I'm sure this suggestion will elicit gasps from those who believe that this will upset users with legacy Lightning devices, but it's easy to imagine a WiGig to Lightning/USB adapter that can keep them out of the scrap heap.

Wrapping Up

It's time for some serious innovation in the iPhone family, and at this point that means Apple needs some extreme focus on key features that will really make these devices better and more useful for the majority of their customer base.