Rumor: Apple looking to Catcher to help provide glass-backed iPhone for 2017

The current rumor has it that Apple is looking towards a glass-backed iPhone for 2017.

This is according to Allen Horng, Chairman and Chief Executive of Catcher, a supplier that builds metal casings for Apple’s iPhone line.

Speaking at his company’s annual shareholder meeting, Horng said Apple plans to unveil an iPhone with a glass casing and a metal frame. He said the metal frame for the glass-exterior phone will require “advanced processing technology,” and that it won’t be cheap to manufacture.

Horng indicated that only “one model” will adopt the glass casing in 2017.

Word of an all-glass-exterior iPhone first surfaced from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who indicated in March that next year’s model could represent a major revamp for the product design. It’s expected that Apple will also implement an OLED panel in the redesigned iPhone, ditching the LCD panels the company has used since the first-generation model launched in 2007.

According to Kuo, although glass is slightly heavier than aluminum for a smartphone casing, the adoption of an AMOLED display will compensate for the added weight. And while 100 percent of iPhones are currently made with aluminum bodies, he expects that number will fall to 40 percent or less following the launch of the 2017 iPhone.

Rumors of a glass-back iPhone have been circulating in recent months and other rumors have ranged from an edge-to-edge display alongside a display featuring a built-in touch ID sensor.

Though Apple has stuck to a “tick-tock” strategy with the iPhone for years, redesigning its handset every two years and then refining it with an “s” upgrade, all signs from the rumor mill point to Apple introducing a new iPhone design next year. Apple’s “iPhone 7” is expected to be introduced this September, and leaked parts and details show a device with a nearly identical form factor to the iPhone 6s.

As of now, it’s all hearsay and scuttlebutt, but there’s generally a grain of truth to be found in the midst of all of it.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via AppleInsider and Nikkei