I had thought that the iPhone X designation was selected to allow a temporary new premium price point (because that is the cost of getting the future today) as a test. And that we would eventually see a move to non-numbered naming once we got past the 9 (similar to how iMacs and iPads are no longer numbered). So it would just be iPhone (without ridiculous numbers like 18 showing up someday).
Now, with no iPhone 9, I am a little concerned that X somehow part of the iPhone name, sort of like how OS9 went to OSX and then OSX became the name of the OS itself with numbering continuing onward regardless. But it seems cuckoo for ALL iPhones to be named iPhone X so am still hoping reason prevails. Maybe the X disappears once all numbered phones are gone?
So maybe in a few years, there is just "iPhone" with letters indicating where in the hierarchy they stand.
A small note - the surprise that the XR has the same chip and camera as the XS seems misplaced - the 8 had the same chip and camera as the X so it makes sense that the XR (which is really a 9) has the same as the XS.
A smaller note - I thought the X meant we were seeing two years ahead but all we were really seeing was the X line that would come into its own in 2018 (a one year advance look).
