In a day from now, Apple will launch its the new iPhones. The iPhones for 2018 are going to launch at an event in Steve Jobs Amphitheatre in Apple’s new “spaceship” campus on September 12. The event is scheduled for 10AM local time in San Francisco, which means in India you will be able to follow it from 10.30PM at night. Ahead of the launch, a number of details have leaked. Yet, there is one big mystery remains: the names of the new iPhone. Will these be called the iPhone XS, iPhone X Plus and the iPhone XC or something else?

So far the leaks point out that there will be three iPhones that Apple will launch at the September 12 “gather round” event. And these leaks and rumours seem very credible, considering they have been substantiated by websites such as Bloomberg. One of these iPhones is going to be similar to the iPhone X, which was launched last year and is available right now. Another one will be a bigger variant of this iPhone, while the third iPhone will be a relatively cheaper iPhone with a 6.1-inch screen.

So far, it seems that the regular iPhone this year will be called the iPhone XS. But what is not clear is that if this will be the “iPhone 10 S” or the “iPhone Ex S”. If the naming convention from last year holds, the X should be 10 here and hence the iPhone will be called the iPhone XS (iPhone 10 S). But then this “confused” a lot of people while Apple called its phone “iPhone ten” people preferred “iPhone ex”. So, it is possible that Apple may call this year’s regular phone “iPhone Ex S”. We will know tomorrow for sure.

Then there is the name of the bigger iPhone, which is likely to come with a 6.5-inch. The convention says that it is going to be called the iPhone XS Plus, given that earlier Apple has named its bigger phones iPhone 8 Plus and so on and so forth. We have also seen the iPhone XS Plus name being promoted in the marketing material prepared by telecom companies in China. But then a few days ago, The Verge reported that the bigger iPhone is going to be called the iPhone XS Max. That’s mouthful and reads more clumsy than the iPhone XS Plus, but then while naming its devices Apple can be rather unpredictable.

Or if we decide to move beyond the XS part in the name of iPhone 2018, may be will get the iPhones that have 9 in them. After all, these iPhones are not going to be a successor to the iPhone X but also the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. In this case, Apple may decide to call the regular iPhone as the iPhone 9 and the bigger phone the iPhone 9 Plus. But then this naming scheme will be a little weird because the iPhone X aka the iPhone 10 already exists.

So far leaks and rumours hint that there will be three iPhones that Apple will launch at the September 12 “gather round” event
Finally, we have the third iPhone, which will be relatively cheaper and will come with a slightly less slick design and a screen that will measure 6.1 inches. The name for this one is even harder to predict. For now, the rumours point towards the iPhone XC. This is based on the assumption that this relatively cheaper phone could spiritual successor to the iPhone 5C. The problem, however, is that the iPhone 5C was perceived as a cheap iPhone. Many people said that C in the iPhone 5C stood for “cheap”. That is the kind of image Apple will probably want to avoid for the new iPhone with a 6.1-inch screen.

The chances then are that Apple may decide to call the iPhone with the 6.1-inch screen simply the iPhone 6.1. But then this name may create another issue. People may perceive the phone as an update to the iPhone 6, which is a very old phone, instead of considering it an iPhone from 2018 with cutting-edge hardware and features.

To cut the long story short, while we know that three iPhones are going to launched by Apple on September 12, given the different kind of names Apple has used for its phones in the last few years, this year it is very difficult to predict what the company is going to call the iPhone 2018. Thankfully we don’t have to wait too long now before Apple launches the iPhone 9, or will that be the iPhone XS.