Okay, first things first….let us be real with you – the new iPhone looks EPIC! Yes, the iPhone coming out in September 2017 looks incredible! Apple has packed some really cool things into iOS 11 specifically for this phone. New look-feel-shape. No home button resulting in an über sexy all glass face, new OLED display technology with better resolution, more image area, and better battery life due to this fantastic screen. AR integration, camera, facial recognition, and the list goes on and on.

All this for an astronomical price tag. Seriously, MacBook’esque price tag. This device is rumored to start at $999 versus Apple’s current price structure of $650 for the starting device. Forbes is predicting the phone’s starting price will beat $1,199 with some media outlets are stating it will potentially reach $1,499!

Here is what September is likely to bring; an iPhone 7s, an iPhone 7s plus, and the new iPhone. I say new because no one can pinpoint what it will be called. Given the 7 will get the “S” series, my bet is on it being called the iPhone PRO. Since this is my article, we’re going to call it the PRO.

So what’s the difference?

iPhone 7s & 7s Plus will look like and be sized like the current versions at 4.7” and 5.5” LCD TFT displays. They will contain the same software and internal hardware upgrades. However the PRO will get the edge to edge OLED display and no-home-button-sexy-AF look and will be sized between the two at 5.1”. BUT with edge-to-edge display will make it the exact same screen area as the Plus. That is CRAZY!!

In years past there have been pretty BIG changes in the iPhone on the every-other year cycle.. Since 2013 with the reveal of iPhone 6 there hasn’t been a monumental change in the phone to technology;

The iPhone 4 to the 4s… MEGH.

The iPhone 5 wowzers!!

The iPhone 5 to the 5c or 5s… MEGH.

The iPhone 5s to 6, wowzers!

The iPhone 6 to 6s… MEGH.

The iPhone 6s to 7… MEGH.

The 7 Plus did get the cool dual cameras, but not ground breaking like in the past.

Since 2013, FOUR YEARS, Apple hasn’t made a huge change. Until now.

So this new PRO Should be the phone to jump at, right? Then why am I writing an article that you shouldn’t buy…errr, or sell your soul to your carrier to finance it?

Okay, twist my arm, I’ll tell you.

First lets talk price. I feel the 7s will likely be greater than $650 but less than $700. so let’s assume they do exactly what they did to the ‘plus’ models last year and increase it by $20. Right, it’s ONLY $20? that puts the “S” likely at $670, $770, & $870. I suspect they will go higher to make the self up-sell easier to the PRO.  But for arguments sake let’s pretend this is reality. The 7s Plus will Likely be the same $770, $870, $970. The PRO is rumored to only come in 2 sizes. Very smart, most people who buy the smaller storage find VERY quickly it’s too small. As for pricing, the PRO is rumored to be $1199 & $1299. So here is what the suspected pricing looks like:

Okay, I know I know, we’re still not at “why the F!@# shouldn’t I buy the PRO?” It’s got some epic updates, new look, faster, AI, AR, camera, battery….it’s seriously everything forward thinking….except one thing; the connection to the carrier. You might be asking yourself, but what do you mean?

What do you mean, what do I mean?

Right now LTE is the standard for cellular data exchange. I know we all get pissed off when you’re on the edge of town and it says “3G” and Facebook won’t load. It’s a real problem. Remember when phones went from 2G to 3G? then form 3G to 4G/LTE? It’s a monumental difference!

As more and more people do everything on their phone, carry a laptop less, demand more data transferred, the need for a 5G band is real and coming. And it’s coming FAST. Faster than it was expected to arrive 6 months ago and probably going to increase at a more rapid rate as the shift to a mobile only ecosystem continues. Current expectations are late 2019, and I expect that time table to shrink to early 2019.

So let’s spit ball this. You’re NOT going to pay $1,200 for a phone. Your carrier is playing that magic shell game adding $47 a month to your bill. $100 out of pocket and you can walk out with your new iPhone PRO. Done! You’re sold. You’ve been waiting since 2014. You deserve this. It’s yours. You strut out of the store with your new Unicorn in hand.

Fast forward 10 months. I speculate that Apple’s $220 BILLION DOLLAR velocity push for 5G will come Q1 2019, and Apple’s next release in October 2018 has 5G on all the models; 4.7, 5.1, 5.5, Oh, and they all use the PRO technology. Are you starting to see where this is going?

Remember when you went from a 2G to a 3G? The iPhone at the time was simply called the iPhone 3G. Remember the jump from an iPhone 4s to a iPhone 5 or 5s with 4G? It was HUGE!! Now an iPhone 4s is so slow it is only a phone and not a smart phone. The is so much data transferred now that it can’t/won’t load emails very well at all, much less your Insta feed.

Well SHIT! Your $1200, 4G, iPhone PRO, that WAS the latest and greatest now it just won’t cut it because that awesomeness came out just before the next huge power boost in wireless data. Double SHIT! But wait there’s more.…You still OWE $650 on the PRO. Triple SHIT! We’re pretty much onto diarrhea here.

My view is that customers who buy the PRO will be sorry. The smart play would be the 7S or a Certified Pre-Owned 7 series that someone has taken the depreciation hit on. Sounds like a car huh? Let’s face it, the American consumer needs to get smarter about buying these $1,000 pocket size computers. In the end it is like buying a new car every year for those who are consistently replacing them. Buy smart and don’t be sorry 14 months later when 5G hits the US markets.