The purpose of Rendering what a product may or will look like is a tried and true method for research and development companies to “whittle down” the ideas of how a product should look and feel physically so that only the top one, two or three lets say, are ever actually manufactured for testing. Otherwise every option you wanted to explore would need to be built and that would become cost prohibitive. Renders also provide context at presentations or meetings regarding said product under development. Sometimes these renders are leaked to bloggers and journalists and depending on the product and the company some become ’news'.

As an engineer that’s been through product development cycles (more than once) it’s difficult for me to accept when tech blogs post images of renders that come from inside R&D companies and that they think that this is some sort of news worth reporting. “Hey this is what the next BLAH device ‘might’ look like…” Of course it could well look like anything else but that doesn’t matter does it? What if it was the fourteenth render they chose to manufacture and not the twentieth render that was leaked? Does this leaked render then tell me anything at all?

Now suppose you’re at school and there’s this other person you really want to ask out on a date and you know they’re single. Someone walks up to you and says, hey I’ve got some mock-up photos of that person you’re interested in with other potential partners - check it out! Now take that one step further - you generate your own mock-ups yourself. Sound crazy? Well, the latest twist in this ongoing saga of renders came from someone I expected better from: ex-Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky at their interim website. Not content with their inside source with no images or blurry leaked photos, they did their own rendering of what the next iPhone MIGHT look like.

In the spirit of insanity, I now present my latest render! (It’s Awesome!)

The hexagonal side profile may be more pronounced in the final version. Colour, size, shape (especially the hexagon side view thing), weight and features may vary when it’s actually released.