New iPhone: Name of 2018 model causes problems for Apple

A new iPhone is on the way – but nobody knows quite what it will be called.

Even Apple is yet to decide on the naming scheme for its new handsets, according to new reports.

And naming them appears to be extra difficult because of the complicated naming scheme Apple has given to its current line-up, and the even more complicated structure of the new line-up.

Apple is expected to unveil its new iPhones sometime around 12 September. They'll then make their public around a week and a half later, unless there are any shock changes to the schedule.

But what is less clear is what those phones will actually be called. According to a new Bloomberg report, Apple is unclear on how to name the new handsets and could even change before they are released.

The problems of naming the phone are made more difficult by the complicated line-up Apple will be offering this year. Numerous rumours point to the fact that Apple will offer three phones: its brand new flagship model to succeed the iPhone X, a Plus-sized version of that phone, and a more budget model that will be the middle of the size-range but the bottom of the price-range.

Internally, Apple is said to consider the new phones as part of an "S" year, when the improvements are made to the inside of the phone and the outside is kept much the same. Usually, the company deals with such situations by simply adding an S to the name – a tradition that began with the 3GS in 2009 and continued all the way up until the 6S just a couple of years ago.

But trying that this time around would get very complicated. The new model would be an iPhone XS – a strange that name that could easily be confused for a statement on its size – the bigger one would be given the complicated name XS Plus. The third one would have to take a new name that made clear it was better than the current iPhone 8 or X but not too much better than the more premium models.

It is likely that Apple will opt for something else entirely. Apple could even drop its now traditional "Plus" naming, Bloomberg reported.

With the iPad, Apple appears to have given up on numbering its different releases. Instead it just stocks the "iPad" and the "iPad Pro" in two sizes – and when the new iPad came out earlier this year, it simply referred to it that way.

Some have suggested it could do the same with the iPhone, but that could be difficult when it continues to sell older models and differentiating each year is more important.

The names of Apple products are among the most secret parts of their production: unlike the manufacture of the phones themselves, for instance, they are decided in-house and by the most trusted members of the team. They can also be changed right up until the day they are revealed.

For now the phones are known only by their codenames, according to the Bloomberg report. The company reported the most expensive, large version of the phone is known as D33, the smaller one is referred to as D32, and the cheaper model is codenamed N84.