Mysterious New iPhone Models Appear in Latest tvOS 17 Beta

Although it’s all but entirely certain that we’ll see four new iPhone models arrive next month, it seems Apple may have a few others in the works, as evidenced by code found in the latest tvOS 17 beta released this week.

At first glance, references to unreleased iPhone models don’t seem all that surprising, but in this case, the internal identifiers appear to reflect something other than Apple’s flagship iPhone 15 lineup.

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Unearthed by AppleDBDev contributor @aaronp613, the “iPhone 14,1” and “iPhone 14,9” designations in tvOS 17 beta 5 don’t seem to match the pattern of those that would be used for Apple’s upcoming A17-powered iPhone 15 lineup.

In recent years, Apple has organized the internal identifiers for iPhone models based on the A-series chip contained within each, with the first number being one digit off from the actual chip number. The second digit seems to indicate the order in which each iPhone was developed, with skipped numbers possibly representing prototypes or other test models that never made it into final production.

For instance, the iPhone 14 Pro, with its A16 Bionic chip, is “iPhone 15,2” while the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 14, both of which use the A15 Bionic, are respectively “iPhone 14,2” and “iPhone 14,7.” The A15-powered third-generation iPhone SE also gets an internal ID of “iPhone 14,6.” Likewise, the iPhone 12 lineup used “iPhone 13,x” designators that matched up with its A14 chips.

Following the pattern, one would expect the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max to use an “iPhone 16” designator to match up with the A17 Bionic that’s expected to power them. The standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will likely use last year’s A16, so they’ll get “iPhone 15,x” tags.

Four IDs that appeared in the earlier tvOS 17 betas that have since been removed would seem to confirm this, with iPhone15,4 and iPhone15,5 likely representing the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone16,1 and iPhone16,2 the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max — or at least some preliminary test versions of those devices.

However, what’s been found in the latest tvOS 17 beta doesn’t fit this pattern at all, with the “iPhone 14,1” and “iPhone 14,9” suggesting two more models that would still use Apple’s 2021 A15 chip.

This has triggered a whole round of speculation about what these could represent, with suggestions ranging from a new fourth-generation iPhone SE to a prototype iPhone Fold or a return of the iPhone mini. None of these seem likely, though.

For one, a new iPhone SE would almost certainly get a more recent chip. The 2022 iPhone SE already uses the A15 and features an identifier of “iPhone 14,6.” The next-generation model will likely get some other significant improvements, such as an edge-to-edge OLED display and a side-button Touch ID sensor. Still, it’s not expected to land until next year at the earliest, and by then, it stands to reason Apple would want to put an A16 in to keep it more current.

A more likely possibility is that Apple could re-release some current iPhone models with a USB-C port, eliminating Lightning across the board. If Apple sticks to what it’s done recently, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will likely remain on sale for another year, while the iPhone 13 will drop into the spot currently occupied by the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 13 mini drops off the roster along with the two iPhone 14 Pro models.

In that case, these numbers could represent updated USB-C versions of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. That’s certainly plausible in light of European regulations that will require all iPhones sold on that continent to adopt USB-C by the end of 2024.

Although Apple has over a year to comply with those rules, it may want to stay ahead of the curve. After all, it likely plans to keep at least one of the two iPhone 14 models on the market into 2025, at which point it will need a USB-C port if Apple wants to keep selling it in Europe. The iPhone 13 will likely be discontinued in September 2024 when Apple releases the iPhone 16 lineup and therefore has no risk of running afoul of EU regulations down the road.

Ultimately, these numbers could also just as easily be leftover references to earlier prototypes or test models. The “iPhone 14,1” is particularly unusual since Apple typically (but not always) increments the numbers with later models. On the other hand, “iPhone 14,9” would be the next sequential number after the iPhone 14 Plus, which currently uses the “iPhone 14,8” identifier.