THE FUTURE OF THE IPHONE MIGHT NOT BE WHAT YOU EXPECT

It is rumoured that Apple is developing two new pieces of technology for future iPhone models: one is touchless gesture control and the other is a curved display. Both projects are said to be at least two years away but are currently in the early stages of research and development.

Apple's closest rival, Samsung, has already offered versions of both technologies in its prior models. Air gestures on the Galaxy S4 allowed users to browse between photos or scroll web pages just by swimming in the air above the phone. Air View would function a lot like Apple's 3D Touch, exposing additional information when you hover your finger over a trigger area.

Although Samsung has also had curved screen sides for years now, reports indicate Apple's curved iPhone display would "curve inward gradually from the top to the bottom". As for the hover gestures, which have been a popular topic of experimentation among tech companies, Microsoft has also worked on an implementation of them for its ill-fated Windows Phone platform.

Microsoft's Kinect-like phone gestures showed a lot of promise for the idea, though a coherent and compelling use of floating touch interactions hasn't yet been demonstrated on a retail device. That leaves ample room for Apple to do what it usually does, by taking a late idea, but popularise it through smarter and better integration into its overall user experience.