Apple Still Planning ‘Glass-Centric’ iPhone Redesign for 2027

Aiming to refute a report from Jefferies analyst Edison Lee earlier today that claimed Apple’s all-glass iPhone planned for the device’s 20th anniversary next year has been canceled, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman says that the “glass-centric” redesign remains on track for 2027.

Gurman says that the 20th-anniversary iPhone will make heavy use of glass, with the front and rear wrapping around the edges to sandwich a thin metal band.

The company expects to launch iPhone Pro models next year that will make use of a new glassy look, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is confidential. Glass is used on the front and back of the phones — known internally as V73 and V74 — and the material will curve into the sides of the devices, with a metal band in the middle.

Gurman does mention a “more aspirational version” that “used even more glass,” but says that design “was scrapped early on” in the development cycle.

It’s possible that this more ambitious design is the one Lee was referring to in today’s report, but Gurman implies that it was discarded some time ago, rather than being a more recent development as Lee had suggested.

Lee’s report also appeared to suggest that the all-glass design would have been for an all-new model, saying the Jefferies analysts believed Apple’s plan was to “extend the all-glass features to future iPhone Pro and Pro Max models,” but we have not heard anything about such a potential additional model in quite some time. All recent rumors have been pointing toward the glass-heavy design already being for the Pro and Pro Max models in next year’s lineup.