Other than the iPhone 12 in the first year of the pandemic, Apple has announced its new flagship smartphone in September every single year since 2012, so it's entirely safe to say that the "Apple Event" scheduled for 3am this Wednesday (AEST) will feature the next generation iPhone.
The iPhone 15 will be to many "just another iPhone" but at the same time it does introduce a period of change for Apple and could appeal to the widest audience of iPhone owners in many years.
While many see iPhones as an every year, or every second year replacement item, millions of Australians don't. And many of them are now using the iPhone X, iPhone Xs or iPhone 11 from 4-6 years ago and will see huge benefit from an upgrade in 2023.
Many of the "new features" we will see this week are in fact software features from the upcoming iOS17, which will be available to all iPhones from the XR and Xs onward in the month ahead, but there are expected to be some big changes to the fundamental iPhone 15 physical features.
Firstly, the charging cable will change from Apple's proprietary lightning connector introduced in 2012 with the iPhone 5. Apple is being forced to use a USB-C connection for charging.
While Apple won't likely mention why, it's because the European Union mandated this on all new consumer tech from late next year, so in fact Apple is going toward USB-C one year earlier than required, but given the life-cycle of its devices now seems the right time.
It's likely Apple will point to other advantages, such as faster charging speeds but expect those to be closely aligned to Apple-certified cables for safety reasons, while any USB-C cable will still provide some level of charge.
The other big change is the removal of the mute toggle switch that's been on the left side of all iPhones since the very first one in 2007. It's rumoured this will be replaced by an "action key" programmable to certain functions of the phone for you to choose.
Alongside this will be a slight design tweak, with ever so slightly rounded edges, and the introduction of the Dynamic Island from the iPhone 14 Pro models into the entire iPhone 15 Range.
Finally, there's some talk of an advanced optical zoom lens on the largest most expensive iPhone, the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
All will be revealed on Wednesday morning, alongside likely updates to the Apple AirPods (to match the USB-C charging), and new Apple Watches with incremental updates to the new Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches.
9News will have all the details of Apple's announcements across 9News, Today and here at 9News.com.au on Wednesday.
Trevor Long is travelling to Apple's headquarters as a guest of Apple.
