Apple is reportedly facing a delay with the production of its in-house touch and display driver integration solutions for the 2016 iPhone lineup, ending up placing LCD driver IC orders with Synaptics.
In September 2014, Synaptics acquired Renesas SP Drivers, which is the sole supplier of LCD driver ICs for iPhones, to keep the orders coming in from Apple. This time, based on the evidence, it seems that the Cupertino brand will be remaining as one of the touchscreen supplier's customers for the time being.
"The development of Apple's in-house developed TDDI solutions has fallen behind schedule, as the smartphone vendor has released orders for its 2016 models to Synaptics," the Taiwanese website DigiTimes reports as the industry sources' statement.
Apple hired senior engineers from Renesas before in an effort to develop TDDI chips internally. The tech firm is also rumored to be integrating Touch ID sensors into iPhone displays. This move indicates that later iPhone generations will be sporting a home button-less design. However, recent developments imply that the technology will be put on the back burner for now, which means that it's possible it won't be featured on the iPhone 7 yet.
Moving forward, Apple filed a couple of patents for display, which suggests that iPhone 7 units will be undergoing a drastic redesign, meaning thinner and narrower displays. But after recent events, speculations about the redesign became more unlikely.
Other rumors suggest that the iPhone 7 will be launching sooner than expected, and if they hold true, it'll probably be fitted with Apple's iconic home button.
It seems that the iPhone 7 lineup won't be getting the considerable redesign we've been hoping to see, but we can always keep our fingers crossed.
The iPhone 7 is expected to roll out sometime in September 2016, and the iPhone 7 Plus might be the home of the A10 chipset and 3 GB worth of RAM.
