A new report today has almost three quarters of people apparently uncomfortable with the iPhone 13 name, something that could prove a problem when this fall rolls around. It's fairly obvious why that might be, with plenty of people either superstitious of the number 13 or downright afraid of it.
Triskaidekaphobia is the name given to the fear of the number 13 and it runs deeper than just thinking that the number is unlucky. Like all phobias, it's difficult to understand when it isn't something you suffer with. That makes it easy to make the obvious jokes and hopefully people will avoid doing just that. But all of that ignored for a moment, maybe this is a good time for Apple to drop the number from its iPhone lineup altogether.
Of those asked as part of the same survey, 38% said that Apple should go with iPhone (2021) this time around. It's something I've generally been against, if only because it makes my job harder. We already suffer from iPad Pro generations, as we do with the rest of the iPad lineup. Knowing which is which one thing, but expecting readers to also know is another entirely. That might be the best argument against dropping the numbers from the iPhone lineup, in fact. But in a world where Apple wants to get everyone onto the iPhone Upgrade Program, do iPhone version numbers even matter?
In terms of dealing with the iPhone 13 conundrum, Apple could just skip the number altogether and move to 14. It skipped iPhone 9, after all. It won't be the pretty thing to do, but Apple will do what Apple wants to do regardless. It could kick this can down the road and go with iPhone 12s if it wanted.
Will people avoid buying iPhone 13 because of a name? I'd like to think not – after all, the number is unlikely to be printed anywhere on the box. It certainly won't be on the phone itself. In terms of day-to-day life, will it matter to even the most triskaidekaphobic out there?
That's something I can't answer, but with Apple set to announce iPhone 13 – or whatever it ends up being called – within months, you'd have to assume Apple already knows exactly that the best iPhone yet will be called. And remember, iPhone 12s still isn't out of the equation yet.
