WSJ: iPhone 8 to sport curved OLED screen, supplant Lightning with USB-C

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that iPhone will feature a flexible screen based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology and supplant Lightning with USB-C.

The story corroborates KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo’s claims that Apple will release three new phones this year in the form of the brand new OLED-based iPhone 8 model with refreshed industrial design and the more iterative LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus updates.

“Apple Inc. has decided to adopt a flexible display for one model of the new iPhone coming out this year and has ordered sufficient components to enable mass production,” people familiar with the matter said.

WSJ refers to iPhone 8 as “10th Anniversary Edition”, but it’s unclear if it’ll be marketed under that moniker. The story says iPhone 8 has a “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of Apple’s original Lightning connector”.

As you know, Apple switched from the 30-pin Dock connector to Lightning I/O for iOS devices with the release of iPhone 5 in 2012. The twelve-inch MacBook was the first Apple computer to use the new USB-C standard. 2016 MacBook Pro models dropped all legacy USB ports for USB-C, creating something of a controversy.

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I find it difficult to believe that Apple would drop its proprietary Lightning connector for a bulkier USB-C just a few short years after adopting Lightning.

Another possibility: iPhone 8 could retain Lightning and ship with a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box so that the phone could be charged from USB-C-outfitted Mac computers and wall chargers right out of the box.

It’s a far fetched rumor, that much is clear, especially with the Magic accessories, AirPods and BeatsX earphones all featuring a Lightning port for charging.

On the other hand, USB-C is becoming an industry standard across smartphones and many other devices so there’s that.

What do you guys think?

Source: The Wall Street Journal