[DigitalToday intern reporter Seungah Yoo] Forecasts are diverging again over whether Apple will apply an all-glass design to its 20th anniversary iPhone due next year.

On Aug. 11 (local time), NineToFiveMac reported that a Jefferies analyst believed Apple has abandoned plans to release an all-glass iPhone next year. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman (마크 거먼) immediately disputed that.

The starting point of the debate is a long-term vision emphasized by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive (조니 아이브). Ive repeatedly mentioned a form in which the iPhone essentially becomes a single sheet of glass, and Apple is believed to have maintained that direction even after he left the company.

Apple is not a company that strongly highlights product launch anniversaries. Even so, the prevailing view in the market is that Apple is trying to release a product as close as possible to that vision to mark the iPhone's 20th anniversary. Ideas being discussed include placing Face ID under the display and hiding the front camera beneath the screen as well.

Expectations have continued to differ over the actual product form. Early on, the dominant view was that it would be a separate model, like the iPhone Air or the forthcoming iPhone Ultra. More recently, the weight has shifted toward the view that the design will be applied to next year's iPhone Pro lineup.

In order, the next model name would be the 'iPhone 19 Pro'. There is also talk that Apple could skip a generation to mark the 20th anniversary and name it the 'iPhone 20' instead.

The split outlook reflects differences in how the target timing is interpreted. Gurman reported that Apple has stepped back from what it initially aimed to reach by next year. That is closer to adjusting the completion timing or scope of implementation than scrapping the plan itself. NineToFiveMac अनुमानed that the Jefferies analyst may have heard the same information but, having learned it relatively recently, could have taken it as a full withdrawal of the plan.

The key point is that Apple's iPhone vision has no single final destination. Whatever next year's product is, it would only be a process of moving one step, or several steps, closer to the goal of a 'single sheet of glass'. The question is not whether the goal is achieved next year, but how large a move Apple makes toward it.

NineToFiveMac said next year's design would be a major leap comparable to the launch of the iPhone X, but that changes are likely to continue after that. That has also brought attention to the branding of the 2027 iPhone. Apple is unlikely to call it directly the '20th anniversary iPhone', but it could still give it symbolic meaning by using a separate name or skipping a generation label, it said.

Ultimately, the market's focus is less on whether a fully realised all-glass iPhone arrives next year than on whether the 20th anniversary model can become a turning point in Apple's design strategy.