When KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo offers a research note, people tend to listen.
Recently, Kuo offered a report stating that the iPhone will be seeing a major redesign in 2017, dropping the iconic aluminum casing for an all-glass enclosure with AMOLED screen. This corroborates a previous report offering hints of a fairly radical redesign to be seen in the near term.
Kuo believes that Apple will be moving to an all-glass enclosure, dropping aluminum completely as it will no longer appear modern or fresh in 2017. Apple’s smartphone competitors are also adopting aluminum designs in droves, making it more likely Apple will want to differentiate with entirely new materials.
Kuo did note elaborate as to whether the next-gen iPhone will be made entirely of glass, not did he offer detailed specifics as to the redesign. Apple has used glass in the iPhone 4 and 4s models, but the glass itself was contained within a stainless steel band.
The new glass phone will also feature a new AMOLED display panel, which will be thinner and lighter to compensate for the slight weight increase of glass compared with metal exteriors. Kuo does not believe that drop test issues will be a roadblock in Apple’s decision making, given the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s already relied heavily on glass front and back. Last week, Apple reportedly reached a $2.6 billion agreement with Samsung to supply OLED panels for iPhone displays.
It looks like Apple’s looking for a major new iPhone form factor in 2017, albeit leaks to date have shown only modest changes for the iPhone 7, which seems to be largely similar to the existing iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models. So far, the biggest new thing for the iPhone 7 appears to be the addition of a dual-camera for better pictures, although rumors have indicated this will be exclusive to the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus.
As always, stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac