2019’s New iPhones Are Rumored to Sport These 3 Upgrades

With 2019 just days underway — and yet the year already shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet highly competitive among tech-companies in the high-end smartphone market — one of the first analysts to go live with their 2019 iPhone predictions believes that [at least one] of Apple’s upcoming iPhone models will boast a few major feature upgrades which include:

1. USB-C connectivity.
2. Under-the-glass Touch ID sensor.
3. Slimmer TrueDepth camera notch.

But Are These Upgrades Enough?

These predictions were prophesied this week by Jean Baptiste Su, Vice President and Principal Analyst with research and consulting firm, Atherton Research, in a column penned exclusively for Forbes — which seeks to highlight the significance of AAPL’s recent revenue guidance downgrade.

“With the latest iPhone X lineup, Apple is selling yesterday’s technology at tomorrow’s prices, and consumers are beginning to realize that,” Su writes.

Su goes on to note that some of these customers are opting to instead purchase “cheaper and better equipped Android smartphones” from companies like Samsung and Huawei, “or [are] keeping their iPhones longer.”

“Although we believe that Apple will release a re-designed iPhone X in 2019—with a smaller notch, a fingerprint reader (Touch ID) under the display, and a USB-C port—it will still lack the extensibility (memory card), the battery life, the lightning-fast charging capability, and the camera quality of Android flagship smartphones while being more expensive.”

Credibility Check

First of all, worth pointing out is that we’re only four days into 2019 so far — and so, realistically speaking, any talk of what Apple may (or may not) have in store for its iPhone models arriving over nine months from now is all speculation, at best.

Moreover, while today’s report is among the first 2019 iPhone rumors to be published by a major outlet like Forbes, it’s also worth bearing in mind that we’ve never heard from this ‘Mr. Su’ (or his Atherton Research firm) before — and so these predictions, although certainly exciting to fathom, should be considered with a heaping grain of salt given the analyst’s non-existent track record.

But, There’s Hope

Still, the predictions appear to both conflict (and coincide) with the little information we have on this year’s iPhone models so far.

For instance, while Su believes that Apple will bring back Touch ID as an under-the-glass implementation (ala Qualcomm’s Ultrasonic fingerprint-sensing tech), the far more credible and well-established Ming-Chi Kuo, in a research note penned last year, lamented that Apple has “no plans of returning to Touch ID in any capacity” moving forward.

The rumored Lightning to USB-C upgrade and smaller TrueDepth camera notch, however, are both more believable, practical and likely (although certainly not guaranteed) 2019 iPhone feature upgrades.

Kuo, in a separate research note last year, was first to predict that Apple plans to slim down the notch on its 2019 iPhone models. And USB-C, which the company has increasingly adopted across its latest Mac and iPad Pro models, has already been rumored to debut on this year’s iPhone models, too, according to DigiTimes.

As mentioned, we’re still at a very early stage in the game though; and rumors will only continue trickling in as the year unfolds before us. So stay tuned for all the latest updates, breaking news and analyst predictions on what Apple has in store for 2019.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]