Another disappointing development today. It seems Apple may have confirmed that next Tuesday’s event will not feature the iPhone 12. YouTube videos often ask creators to add tags. These allow a video to show up in more searches, as YouTube cannot always identify these searchable elements from the video or the video description.
Apple’s video for the livestream is already up on YouTube. It seems no one told Apple these tags would be public. That’s because they’re not supposed to be. However, Guilherme Rambo looked into Apple’s listing, checking out the metadata for the page. He found a long list of Apple’s tags for the video, and found a list of things Apple may update or at least mention.
The iPhone is on the list, but no version number is given. Is Apple playing things closely to the chest? Not if you consider the fact that the tags leak the next Apple Watch.
Tuesday’s Event
Previously, it seemed as though Tuesday’s Apple event would surely be about the iPhone 12. The website for Apple’s events even hid an Easter egg, an AR Apple logo, suggesting that the event would be about the iPhone 12 and its advanced AR capabilities thanks to LiDAR. However, well-connected reporter Mark Gurman stated that Apple’s event was going to focus on the Apple Watch, and the iPhone 12 event wouldn’t be until October.
Now we can see a list of what Apple claims the video will be about. iPhone 12 isn’t on the list, but the upcoming Apple Watch Series 6 is:
- AirPods
- Apple
- Apple Event
- Apple Keynote
- Apple Launch
- Apple Special Event
- Apple TV
- Apple Watch
- Digital Art
- Fitness
- Illustration
- iMac
- iOS
- iPad
- iPad Air
- iPhone
- Mac
- MacBook
- MacBook Pro
- September
- Series 5
- Series 6
- Wellness
- WWDC
Intentional Omission?
There’s a possibility that Apple intentionally left out the model number for the iPhone because they don’t want to give it away. It’s even possible that Apple could abandon the naming scheme we know and expect, deciding instead to call the iPhone just the “iPhone.”
That would be believable, but Apple had no problem mentioning “Series 5” and “Series 6,” referring to the Apple Watch. Series 6 is the name for the next Apple Watch.
It’s still possible that Apple decided to keep the secret of the iPhone’s name. They could add tags later. They may have known that it’s possible to see or figure out these meta tags. Is Apple intentionally hiding just the iPhone name, knowing the Apple Watch Series number isn’t a surprise? Possibly. It’s equally possible that this confirms that Apple won’t reveal the next iPhone for another month.
Apple seems to want to drum up a lot of attention for this event, going so far as to purchase a specific Twitter hashtag. So perhaps the iPhone 12 is coming after all and Apple’s being more secretive about it than they were with the Apple Watch Series 6. At least we’ve only got six more days of guessing.
Source: Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider