Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares are up 3.61% to $120 so far this year, the best of any Dow Jones Industrial Average, and well ahead of the index itself which has risen 0.33% to 19,827.25. The improvement comes just ahead of earnings, which will post on January 31

(Apple recently sued chip maker Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) for monopolistic practices.)

By way of contrast, Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) shares are down 0.4% to $30.10. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares are up 0.97% to $62.74. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) shares are up 1.85% to $36.94. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) shares are up 2.75% to $170.55.

The rise is the continuation of a trend which is over a year old. During the last year, the stock has risen 20.69%, much of its after Apple’s last earnings report.

The battle over the share price will stack up, once again, to iPhone sales. The consensus of analysts is that Apple sold 78 million iPhones in the December quarter.

The excitement about Apple’s future and one of the reasons its share price is higher draws from anticipation of the iPhone 8. According to Business Insider, there may be a huge leap forward in smartphone technology when the iPhone 8 launches. The business website reported on January 18

Apple’s next iPhone could include “some form of facial/gesture recognition,” according to a research note distributed to clients by Cowen and Company on Wednesday.

The note includes several new details about Apple’s upcoming iPhone, which is expected to launch in September.

“Other features appear to include some form of facial/gesture recognition supported by a new laser sensor and an infrared sensor mounted near the front-facing camera and, as expected, should also finally include wireless charging,” Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri wrote.

A new kind of depth sensor has not yet been seriously rumored to be in the upcoming iPhone, but it makes sense. Apple bought Primesense, an infrared sensor company, in 2013 — and a new kind of sensor would be critical for Apple to add augmented reality features to upcoming versions of the iPhone.

Pessimists about Apple’s future have often said that the iPhone’s features change too little as each version is released. That may be about to change.

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