Apple will have a "glass-centric" iPhone 20 after all says Bloomberg's Gurman

If you're among the many looking forward to 2027's "all-glass" twentieth anniversary iPhone model, there was some bad news yesterday when reports indicated that Apple had canceled the advanced iPhone model due to yield issues. But according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple isn't totally abandoning the idea of a "glass-centric" iPhone for 2027.

Apple will bypass the iPhone 19 just as it did the iPhone 9 in 2017

Similar to what it did in 2017 when it skipped the iPhone 9 and went right to iPhone X, Apple will leap over the iPhone 19 name to celebrate the actual 20 year anniversary of the device, which originally was released in June 2007. Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at the time was Jony Ive, who envisioned a buttonless glass slab for the first model. While that was too ambitious for 2007, the hope was that it would be doable for 2027.

Apple's ambitious original plans for the iPhone 20

The original plan for the iPhone 20 was to have the display meld into the phone's body to give it the bezel-less design that seems to be eagerly awaited. With the Face ID and front-facing camera under the glass display, there would be no notch, no Dynamic Island cutout, just a pristine slab of glass. Solid-state buttons would replace old-school volume controls, and without a charging port, iPhone users would rely on MagSafe magnetic wireless charging.

Which design do you like the best?

Gurman writes that people familiar with Apple's plans say that the iPhone 20 will still feature a glass-centric build although it will not be as ambitious as the original rumors suggested. The two iPhone Pro models are codenamed V73 and V74. Glass will be used on the front and back of each handset and it will curve iinto the sides of the device. A metal band will be found in the middle.

Concept render of iPhone 20. | Image by FPT

Bloomberg's report explained that the original iPhone 20 design featured more glass instead of metal. Apple reportedly had problems when trying to figure out how to produce the model in large volumes according to Gurman's sources

Jefferies' analyst Edison Lee said that the "all-glass" iPhone 20 was canceled

The other day, Edison Lee, an analyst working for investment bank Jefferies, issued a report based on his checks of Apple's supply chain. Lee wrote that the "all-glass" iPhone 20 had been canceled and he downgraded Apple's shares resulting in a 1.62% or $5.07 decline for the day.

Since Apple usually works on the design for an upcoming iPhone a year in advance, the desgns for the iPhone 20 models have probably been completed and the handsets are most likely

undergoing advanced testing. Wall Street pencil pushers believe that as the iPhone 20 unveiling takes place in September 2027, over 1.3 billion older iOS-powered handsets will be due for an upgrade giving Apple a huge pool of potential iPhone buyers.

Apple has a huge pool of active iPhone users who need to upgrade

Approximately 850 million of those active devices lack the necessary hardware support for Apple Intellgence. Those phones do not support the new Siri AI and the massive improvement that is a major iOS 27 feature. Only the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 series, and the iPhone 17 line will be able to experience Siri as a virtual AI assistant with the release of iOS 27 next month.

Of course, those of us on the iOS 27 developer or public beta programs have already been able to use Siri AI and with each beta update, Siri AI gets better and closes the gap with the Gemini AI assistant on Pixel. Those of you who can only remember Siri as the digital assistant prone to giving three web excerpts from the internet in response to most queries, are going to be surprised and delighted with Siri AI.

We can't forget that the first foldable iPhone will be introduced next month, possibly as the iPhone Ultra. There is still plenty to look forward to as we get closer and closer to the introduction of the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the iPhone Ultra. During the spring of 2027 we should see the iPhone 18, iPhone 18e, and the iPhone Air introduced to the public.

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