iPhone at 10: Five ridiculous rumours for Apple's iconic smartphone that never came to pass

After 10 years and over a billion devices in pockets across the globe, Apple's iPhone has firmly cemented its place in tech history as a landmark product as well as redefining what we think of when someone says the word "smartphone".

Today (9 January) marks the 10 year anniversary for the Cupertino giant's mobile phenomenon - a full decade since the late Steve Jobs stepped on stage at Macworld 2007 and unveiled the very first iPhone in all its multi-touching, visual voicemail-ing, text threading glory.

The iPhone has gone through numerous design iterations over the years, bringing with it beloved features and innovations such as the App Store, retina displays, Siri and Touch ID.

As the "cult of Apple" has grown alongside the iPhone's ascent, so too has the expectation every time a new phone emerges from one Infinite Loop - and in the smartphone industry, expectation always breeds one thing: rampant, often ludicrous speculation.

From the first iPhone all the way to 2016's iPhone 7, the sheer volume of bonkers, mind-bending rumour-mongering has been a sight to behold. To celebrate the iPhone's first double-digit birthday, IBTimes UK has put together a top five of the most outrageous "leaks" and reports to come out of the ever-swirling rumour mill that turned out to be complete nonsense.

Holographic iPhone

The ultimate "have you heard what the next iPhone will do?" rumour.

We've all seen the YouTube videos, and yes, while it would be cool to have a projected "laser" keyboard and a Minority Report-like holographic screen, concept videos like this are exactly that: concepts.

iPhone Nano

Back in early 2011, the growing army of iPhone fanatics were clamouring for any snippet of information regarding the soon-to-be released iPhone 4. One rumour that picked up a lot of traction (so much so that even Bloomberg was suckered in by it) was that Apple was also prepping a smaller, mid-range device, tailor-made and priced to take down Android's swathes of £150-£250 smartphones. Taking cues from the iPod's thinner sibling, the iPhone Nano was a sure thing, right?

Well, no. As it often has, Apple stuck to its premium guns, and while we did eventually get a marginally cheaper, smaller edition of the modern iPhone style with the excellent iPhone SE, "the Nano" was always just smoke and mirrors.

iPhone 3D

Sticking with the heady year of hearsay that was 2011, the release of LG's Optimus 3D - the first smartphone to offer (rubbish) glasses-free 3D - and the HTC Evo 3D prompted speculation that Apple was readying an "iPhone 3D". It wasn't, which was a good thing really as 3D-screened smartphones soon quietly slunk off into obscurity.

iPhone QWERTY keyboard edition

A recurring rumour from the iPhone 3GS - iPhone 5 period, the idea that an iPhone with a QWERTY keyboard would ever stand alongside its touchscreen sibling was always as erroneous as it was nonsensical. This one seems much worse in hindsight considering the fate of BlackBerry and Nokia in the modern smartphone sphere, but the belief that Apple would ever consider slapping a plastic keypad on its iOS darling was pie in the sky to say the least.

Transparent iPhone 6

While it may eventually become another potential entry for this list, respected Apple analysts have suggested that the iPhone may be plumping for an all-glass design in 2017 in celebration of its 10th birthday. How exactly it will look is anyone's guess, but one thing is fairly certain: it won't look like this.

Half-based on an Apple patent for a "wraparound" design (that was later granted in 2016), the dream of a completely see-through iPhone mostly stemmed from a prototype debuted by a Taiwanese company named Polytron.

The company's promise of a transparent smartphone with invisible cables never materialised (Polytron's official website has not been updated since 2013), making reports predicting an iPhone 6 equivalent looking more than a little silly as a result.