chazbcn

It's clear that the iPhone 7/Plus is a transitional line, that will get the backlash of:

- The lack of a standard headphone jack.
- The annoyance of not being able to be charged while wired headphones are plugged in.
- A new 'weird' non moving home button that vibrates instead of just clicking.
Next year the absence of the 3.5 mm jack won't be important anymore. And, supposedly, a click-less home button won't even be there, replaced by taptic feedback and (maybe) a visual cue on screen for where to press to return to the home screen.
Apple is simply laying the grond for their future technologies by slowly breaking up with the things that hold back those advances. And that will always raise some concerns, as we humans usually resist change, because we like the safety of what we know.
3 to 5 years from now it will seem almost riddiculous to use wired headphones. Haptic feedback will be so usual that clicky buttons will seem almost unnecessary. Add in true wireless charging and the iPhone will be a sealed slab of whatever material Jony Ive dreams of, without the need of ports and moving parts and completely water proof.
I think these next 3-5 years will be very interesting in that regard, because screen resolution, high speed processors and simple internal specs are not that important anymore: every high end phone is 'good enough'.
It will be the user experience what will make future devices more or less appealing. And Apple has a huge advantage in that area.

I agree the mechanical home button should be phased out.
However, such design change will be very dramatic: that is the most used button on the iPhone and people are really used to it.
I don't  think there will be a problem by integrating TouchID on the screen. Nonetheless, Im curious about how will Apple solve all the other uses of the Home button, in a way that's still familiar to people and dead easy to do as it is today.
It's such an iconic and vital part of the phone that removing it will be polemic, no matter how clever solution Apple comes with.

New industrial desging + wireless (inductive?) charge could indeed push demand for 2017 iPhone.
An OLED screen is something 'regular' non-tech people would care much less than the physical appearance of the phone (unless it's curved like in the Galaxy Edge series).
If this is true, Apple would then have 4 sizes of phones, although the 5.5" and this possible new 5.2" model would be too similar in size, even though it's rumored to have a reduced bezels and possibly no home button at all.
Speaking of which: it will be interesting to see how Apple manage to keep battery life while reducing the chin and forehead of the phone and even adding up new hardware features (maybe?) in this new high-end mythical model.

Maybe 2017 iPhone could have a ceramic back plate. Apple just released a ceramic Watch 2 edition and it's supposedly stronger than stainless steel and (I gusess) is radio transparent, so they could built a seamless body out of that (instead of glass).

If Apple included such bluetooth AirPods in the iPhone box that would really make people less annoyed with the removal of the headphone jack. It would also make it more alluring to upgrade for people still on the fence (because, you know, 'boring'). Sadly, I don't see that coming, though. I think Apple will only bundle a pair of Lightning EarPods and maybe a 3.5 mm jack adapter. I would be really pleased if they decided to surprise us with a pair of wireless earbuds bundled (oh, well. One can dream!)