A new Wall Street Journal report on Apple's next-generation iPhone suggests a significant overhaul after three years of roughly the same physical design, and much of the WSJ's reporting echoes or builds upon rumors we've heard before. The WSJ says that Apple could switch to an OLED display like those used in the Apple Watch, the MacBook Pro Touch Bar, and many Android phones, also suggesting that display could be curved rather than flat. Apple could follow up on the iPhone 7's static Home button by doing away with it entirely, switching instead to an onscreen software button (other rumors have said that Apple could integrate the TouchID fingerprint sensor into the screen itself).

But the most interesting suggestion in the report is that Apple could drop its proprietary Lightning port in favor of USB-C, the industry standard that has slowly been trickling out into Android phones, PCs, and Apple's own MacBooks and MacBook Pros in recent years. Apple first moved to Lightning in the iPhone 5 in 2012, several years before USB-C would be introduced; at the time, the Lightning connector was intended as a smaller, more convenient replacement for the aging 30-pin connector Apple had been using in its gadgets since the iPod.

Moving from Lightning to USB-C would definitely have benefits for Apple and the ecosystem. USB-C can do everything Lightning can do and then some, and my experience with USB-C cables and connectors so far (Apple's included) has been that they are slightly larger but also sturdier than the Lightning versions. It would also be the first step toward unifying Apple's entire ecosystem behind a single port, doing away with the confusion and inconvenience of the current mix of USB-C, USB-A, and Lightning. Today you can buy a brand-new iPhone 7 and a brand-new MacBook Pro, and you still need to buy a separate cable to be able to connect them together.

But the move would also cause headaches for Apple's gigantic user base. Apple has sold hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads since introducing Lightning, and accessory makers have created a vast galaxy of Lightning-compatible devices to be used with those iPhones and iPads. Switching ports again after just five years would be a repeat of the transition between the 30-pin connector and the Lightning connector, which took many years and prompted much grumbling about adapters. Devices with long replacement cycles like hotel room clocks, treadmills, and cars have kept that 30-pin connector present in my life long after Apple was finished with it.

The Lighting port has also proliferated across many of Apple's other accessories, including the Apple Pencil, the Magic Keyboard, the Magic Mouse 2, the Magic Trackpad 2, and the Lightning earbuds that ship with the iPhone 7. In some cases, these accessories have been around for just a couple of years—even by Apple's standards, that would be an aggressive replacement cycle.

Finally, Apple doesn't own USB-C. Anybody can make USB accessories, though there is a small cost associated with USB-IF logo certification. Currently, Apple uses its "Made for iPhone" (MFi) licensing program both to reduce consumer confusion about cables and accessories and to fight counterfeiting, two problems the USB-IF has been fighting in the USB-C ecosystem practically since the port came to market. And it would hardly be a death blow to Apple, but the loss of MFi program revenue would remove a small-but-steady stream of income from Apple's balance sheet.

You can't always judge what Apple will do by its past performance, but the things in the "pros" column do feel like an Apple-y way of handling things: accept short-term technical and public relations pain in the interest of longer-term benefits. The removal of the headphone jack last year made many of the same tradeoffs.

In any case, if any or all of these rumors are true, the next iPhone would be a major break from the current lineup, which has retained essentially the same physical design since the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in September of 2014.