Shock! The next iPhone is called the iPhone 7

Is this the least surprising news ever? Quite possibly.

A presumed slip-up on the Apple website today, as picked up by Reddit and widely reported elsewhere, has actually named the iPhone 7 – a device that won’t be revealed until tonight’s 6pm event.

Is it a given that the new handset would be called the iPhone 7? You could argue, yes. After all, the established pattern is for Apple is to announce a new numbered handset one year, and then an iterative upgrade with a new suffix the following year (eg. iPhone 6, iPhone 6S).

However, tonight will see a break of tradition in some respect. The iPhone 7 is said to be virtually identical in aesthetic terms to the iPhone 6. In Fact, reports have suggested that it will be next year’s device that actually moves the design forwards.

All of which led some to speculate that tonight might not bring the iPhone 7, but could instead deliver either a new version of the 6 or instead an entirely different naming convention.

This will not be the case. For a brief period this afternoon the Apple site included listings for both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in its side navigation bar. An unusual slip-up for Apple, for sure, but then these are unusual times for the company.