A leaked iOS 11 Golden Master candidate may have just given us a viable answer to one of the biggest unknowns in terms of how Apple might market this year's upcoming iPhones.
iPhone 7s Plus
Everything we expect from Apple’s September product blitz
With just a few days left until Apple's big reveal on Tuesday, speculation as to what the company may or may not announce has pretty much approached fever pitch. Without further ado, this is what we expect at Apple's landmark September 12 Steve Jobs Theater event.
TechCrunch: iPhone 8 will ship sometime after iPhone 7s
The excitement surrounding Apple's upcoming iPhone refresh is approaching fever pitch, but a new report Thursday could damped your enthusiasm somewhat as the flagship OLED phone is rumored to ship later than the LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus models.
Potential iPhone 7s/Plus dimensions leak out
Claimed measurements for Apple's upcoming iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus models have been leaked to Techno Buffalo by a trusted and reliable source, indicating the forthcoming phones might be slightly bigger in every dimension than the iPhone 7 series.
Purported iPhone 7s logic board leaks
As Apple recently kicked off full-scale production of 2017 iPhones, we're beginning to see some leaked components—including this purported logic board for a 4.7-inch iPhone 7s model.
Carriers apparently told to prepare for September 12 iPhone 8 unveiling
The general consensus among people in the know is that Apple will unveil new iPhone models next month and if the latest report is an indication, the OLED iPhone along with the iterative iPhone 7s/Plus devices could be announced at a media event on Tuesday, September 12.
Leaked CAD files suggest iPhone 7s/Plus have front Touch ID & old-fashioned bezels
CAD images posted a few days ago by leak aggregator SlashLeaks suggest that Apple's iterative iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus updates might have the old-fashioned bezels and a front-mounted Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
New videos compare iPhone 8 & iPhone 7s/Plus dummy models in Black, Silver and Copper Gold
Earlier this week, we saw some high-quality images comparing iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s Plus dummies that also highlighted a new copper-like color option coming to an OLED iPhone.
KGI: 2017 iPhones to launch simultaneously in September in three colors
Backtracking from his earlier claim that iPhone 8 might offer fewer casing colors to “maintain its boutique image,” respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with KGI Securities is now saying that all three iPhone models slated for release this year will come in only three color options—Black, Silver and Gold—and launch simultaneously in September.
New dummies illustrate possible glass back design for iPhone 7s series
Most of the chatter about Apple's upcoming iPhones is revolving around the highly anticipated OLED-based model, but fresh new images from Apple tipster Sonny Dickson, reposted by French outlet iGeneration, have depicted the rumored glass-sandwich design for the LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus models.
All three new iPhones reportedly yet to start mass production
A report Monday in Chinese-language Economic Daily News, cited by DigiTimes, alleged that all three new iPhones are yet to start mass production, with production of the highly anticipated OLED-based iPhone 8 model scheduled to kick off between November and December.
The flagship phone would apparently be shipping only in small volumes initially.
As for the iterative LCD-based 4.7-inch iPhone 7s and 5.5-inch iPhone 7s Plus updates, both these models should enter volume production in August, or between one and two months later than the normal mass production schedules of new iPhone devices in previous years.
The upcoming phones are facing production delays because yield rates at Apple's contract manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron have not yet reached levels that warrant mass production. Foxconn has reportedly secured about 95 percent of orders for the OLED iPhone model and small orders for the iPhone 7s series.
PEgatron will produce 65 percent of the 4.7-inch iPhone 7s models and “a small portion” of the OLED-based iPhone while Wistron will produce mainly the 5.5-inch iPhone 7s Plus model.
Photo: iPhone 8 concept via iFanr.
Shortages of 3D NAND flash chips for 2017 iPhones forcing Apple to turn to Samsung, again
Apple's upcoming iPhone models—the OLED-based iPhone 8 and the iterative LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus handsets—have been hit in a global shortage of 3D NAND flash chips, forcing the Cupertino giant to call on Samsung in an effort to secure more.
According to a new report Thursday from DigiTimes, the overall supply of 3D NAND flash components for 2017 iPhones has fallen short of Apple's orders by as much as thirty percent.
That's because the company's current flash chip suppliers SK Hynix and Toshiba have both experienced lower-than-expected yield rates for their 3D NAND technologies.
SK Hynix is among the bidders for Toshiba’s lucrative flash chip unit.
Here's an excerpt from the DigiTimes report:
Apple has turned to Samsung for more NAND chip supplies for its upcoming phones, since Samsung has relatively stable yield rates for 3D NAND technology and has scaled up its output of 3D NAND chips.
TrendForce estimated that supplies of the 3D NAND flash storage chip won't ease until the middle of 2018. “The NAND Flash industry’s manufacturers will continue to devote their attention to the development of 3D 64L NAND Flash technology in 2017,” said TrendForce.
In the second half of 2018, some suppliers will also begin to shift their attention towards the industry’s newer and more advanced 96L flash storage products. Samsung, Toshiba and Micron Technology are currently transitioning to 64-layer 3D NAND flash products, while SK Hynix plans to jump straight to supplying 72-layer 3D chips.
“These gradual changes are all expected to have a potentially beneficial effect on the productions of NAND Flash in 2018,” added TrendForce. “As a result, their prices could start to fall as early as next year”. However, the global supply of NAND flash chips is set to remain tight through the end of 2017.
Business Korea said that Samsung Electronics (which leads the global NAND flash market), Toshiba, Western Digital and SK Hynix are accelerating the development of these three-dimensional NAND flash chip technologies, which basically stack more memory cells than 2D chips while utilizing existing mass production facilities.
The 128GB iPhone 7 model, for example, uses Toshiba’s 3D BiCS NAND technology, which stores three bits of data per transistor and stacks 48 NAND layers onto a single die, bringing accelerated read and write performance compared to 2D flash memory chips.