Next year's iPhones tipped to look a lot like this year's iPhones

The iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR have only been with us for three months, but speculation about what their successors might look like has already started – and apparently, they're going to look very much like the 2018 iPhones.

Analyst Anne Lee, with Japanese investment bank Nomura, is predicting that the design of the 2019 iPhones isn't going to change much from the handsets that just launched, 9to5Mac reports. So the template set down by the iPhone X will get another outing: expect the same three display sizes and the same notch on top.

Considering this year's iPhones weren't vastly different in design from the iPhone X, Apple had been tipped to shake everything up a bit in 2019, but apparently that's not going to happen – at least according to this analyst.

What happens next

While Lee isn't one of the most well-known names in iPhone analysis, there is some sound reasoning here: Apple wants to wait for the next wave of internal tech – specifically 5G – before going to the trouble of redesigning its iconic smartphone.

Inside sources have already revealed that Apple is planning to add 5G capabilities to the iPhone in 2020, so that seems a good a time as any to give the overall design a refresh too. Exactly how Apple will evolve the look of its phones remains to be seen – perhaps the 2018 iPad Pros offer a few hints.

Anne Lee also says augmented reality is going to play a big part in upcoming iPhones – the AR features on the handsets are going to get upgraded in both 2019 and 2020 she says. By the time a new decade rolls around, we might even have some Apple AR glasses.