The iPhone 13 launch may still be fresh in our minds, but there are already enough iPhone 14 rumours to make a Fleetwood Mac album. One of the most popular is that Apple will finally kill the notch and move a hole-punch display similar to what we've seen on almost every Android phone over the past few years.
Personally, I can't see it happening. While moving to a hole-punch display would be cleaner than a notch, it flies in the face of Apple's design philosophy. Apple clearly values having a recognisable product above all.
Many consider notches to be a bad design, a bit ugly, a waste of space. It's a not insignificant black bar that mars the top of your screen. There are technical reasons Apple has stuck with a notch - it houses more than just a selfie camera - but it's also a way you can instantly spot an iPhone. If you're watching a TV show and you see a phone with a notch, even if just for a split-second, most would probably guess it's an iPhone.
Even when you shrink a notched iPhone down to emoji or glyph form, it’s still clearly an iPhone. The same can't be said for Android handsets, which more often than not, are dead ringers for one another from the front.
Look at the new MacBook Pro. It has a notch, even if it doesn't really need one. The upcoming MacBook Air refresh is tipped to feature one too. It's a design element that you don't really notice when you're actively using your MacBook Pro, but one that's still instantly noticeable (and a touch jarring) when you're not. Given how homogenous laptop design is, it's another way people can tell you're using a Mac.
Examples of this philosophy can be found throughout Apple's entire product portfolio. Take, AirPods. When AirPods first launched, they were mocked. People compared them to putting Q-Tips in your ears. But people bought them anyway, with Apple commanding 60% of the global wireless earbuds market two years after the initial model launched.
AirPods went from ridiculed, to iconic. In my original AirPods review, I noted I felt self-conscious wearing them. By the time the second-generation model became available, that was no longer the case.
"When the original AirPods were announced, the design was divisive to say the least. Now, AirPods have almost become a status symbol. At the very least, they've been normalised. I used to feel self-conscious wearing my first set of AirPods. A year-and-a-half later, I don't give a shit. While part of me has clearly just become more comfortable with what was once considered an unconventional design, it doesn't hurt that everyone else is wearing them too."
Apple didn't change, society's perceptions bent to its will. Even now, Apple persists with a stemmed design for AirPods. Many manufacturers are now making subtler, smaller, stemless wire-free buds (even Apple, under Beats), but why would Apple give up an iconic look? If you're wearing white earbuds with a stem, everyone will assume they're AirPods.
There's even the new colourful new iMac, Apple's super-thin all-in-one. Like its predecessor, it has a chin that juts out below the display, elongating the machine. There's no reason Apple had to include a chin; the machine features the manufacturer's smallest logic board to date. If Apple really wanted to, it could have hid it behind the screen. Once again, this would have come at the cost of product identity. Even without an Apple logo adorning the front, you can tell the new iMac is an iMac.
Until 2002, Apple's slogan was "think different". While that may have been retired, it still sums up Apple's core design philosophy. You shouldn't be able to mistake its products for a competitor - even if they may not be keeping with the latest trends or going with the cleanest aesthetic possible. And while there is every chance Apple could change course and kill the notch, if you're expecting a notch-free iPhone 14, my gut says you should prepare to be disappointed.
Alex Choros
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