Barclays Research analysts think Apple might offer iPhone 8 in two screen sizes, one measuring five inches diagonally and the other 5.8 inches. DigiTimes claimed in March that Apple had picked Samsung Display as the main supplier of 5.8-inch AMOLEDs.
In a follow-up report Thursday, DigiTimes reiterated that Samsung Display will be Apple's exclusive supplier of 5.8-inch AMOLED display panels for iPhone 8.
After the United States President-elect Donald Trump promised tax incentives to Apple to build “Made in USA” iPhones, Japanese outlet Nikkei reported that Tim Cook & Co. already asked back in June its contract manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron to look into assembling iPhones domestically. Foxconn reportedly complied, but don't expect other Chinese vendors in Apple's vast supply chain to follow suit.
As reported Wednesday by Chinese-language outlet qq and cited by trade publication DigiTimes, most Chinese supply chain makers will not follow Foxconn even if Apple decides to shift production to U.S.
Japanese blog Mac Otakara heard last month from unverified sources in the Taiwanese supply chain that Apple might be developing a new Jet White color option for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus series.
Yesterday evening, avid Apple leaker Sonny Dickson posted a video on Twitter that shows off glossy white iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus casing mockups, giving us an indication what the rumored Jet White colorway might look like. The mockups were clearly obtained from a third-party vendor and we're posting them for the discussion's sake.
In addition to an iPhone 8 model with all-new industrial design and an OLED-based display, Apple is expected to refresh its existing iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones next year. According to the fairly reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara, a brand new five-inch iPhone 7s model should join the mix next year, acting as the medium size option between the expected 4.7-inch iPhone 7s and 5.5-inch iPhone 7s Plus refreshes. The device is expected to feature a dual-sensor camera out the back in a vertical alignment rather than a horizontal one.
Trade publication DigiTimes said Friday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has received orders to kick off volume production of Apple-designed A10X Fusion chips for the next iPad. However, unsatisfactory yields for TSMC's 10-nanometer process technology could disrupt planned March 2017 launch of the next iPad series.
The proportion of semiconductor devices on the silicon wafer found to perform properly is referred to as the yield. Yield rates in semiconductor fabrication can be as low as thirty percent due to process variation and many other reasons.
Yesterday's report on Bloomberg detailed Apple's search for the best organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) panels on the market. The company's quest to deploy advanced OLED screens on iPhone 8 reportedly hinges on a single supplier in the Japanese countryside, called Canon Tokki, which has been making OLED machines since 1993.
A small branch of Japanese imaging corporation Canon, Tokki has “a near monopoly” on the machines that suppliers use to churn out OLEDs in volume. Although it employs just 343 engineers, Tokki has 20 years of experience developing and perfecting OLED manufacturing equipment.
All iPhone 8 models will feature curved OLED displays, reports The Korea Herald. Citing sources familiar with the plans, the outlet says Apple has placed large orders with Samsung Display for plastic (not glass) OLED panels—similar to those used on the Galaxy S7 Edge—to use in its next handset.
LG's display-making arm is said to be gearing up to kick off volume production of foldable displays for future iPhones, said Korean news outlet ETNews. In addition to Apple, LG Display should supply foldable displays to Google and Microsoft in 2018. LG-developed foldable display prototypes were of sufficient quality for the company to secure global manufacturers as its partners.
Over the past few months, Apple has been quietly hiring engineers away from Here, a Berlin-based automotive mapping company, for mapping jobs in Berlin. Interestingly, Apple's never publicly confirmed that it has an office in Berlin.
According to LinkedIn profiles discovered by Business Insider, Apple's poached at least half a dozen employees from Here, jointly owned by German car makers Audi, BMW and Daimler.
An authorized Apple retailer claimed today that the upcoming W1-equipped BeatsX earphones may not release in another 2-3 months. But what about AirPods? Daring Fireball's John Gruber said loosely on the latest episode of The Talk Show that AirPods, the company's first Bluetooth earphones, may arrive in time for Christmas after all, albeit in very limited quantities. You're advised to take this speculative report with a grain of salt because the sources Gruber's learned this from are not very reliable, according to the man himself.
Spotify, the world's top on-demand music service, is not buying Berlin, Germany-headquartered audio distribution platform SoundCloud after all, TechCrunch has learned.
Spotify has reportedly given up on its latest effort to buy SoundCloud realizing, after months of talks, that any such deal would probably negatively impact its impending initial public offering (IPO) and expected expansions in China, Russia and South Korea.
Samsung's next-generation Galaxy smartphone appears to be poised to beat Apple's upcoming iPhone 8 to the punch now that Bloomberg has corroborated much of SamMobile's report saying the Galaxy S8 will be a bezel-free device with a wraparound display featuring an in-screen Home button. The phone should be unveiled in February 2018 and launch in March.
That way, the Samsung device should enjoy a six-month lead over the iPhone 8's expected fall arrival. However, the Korean giant is considering scrapping plans for a dual-camera on the Galaxy S8 due to “higher manufacturing costs”, one of the sources told the news gathering organization.