Some sincerely given advice/analysis: Apple should call the next handset iPhone Air. The name better fits product and marketing objectives for the two other Airs—iPad and MacBook—and communicates clearer connotations about benefits. Besides, getting away from numbering would make iPhone nomenclature more consistent with other Apple products and make way for getting off the obsessive upgrade treadmill.
Numbering misdirects attention on what’s newest—and its features—rather than what are the product’s benefits. MacBook Air in 2008 is the same name in 2014, despite improvements.
As previously expressed: Features and benefits are not the same thing. The holder wrapped around your Starbucks coffee cup is a feature. Protecting your hand from burning is a benefit. While related, they’re different things. In marketing, product benefits matter more.
Dump the number, Apple. It’s a distraction that’s good for competitors making comparisons and bad for what you really want to communicate to buyers.