Plenty of rumors are floating about that Apple will be releasing three models of the iPhone next year in time for its 10th anniversary.
A leaked document from a reliable Chinese website showed three iPhone variants are being planned. The first two are rumored to be upgraded versions of the iPhone 7, and will likely be named the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.
The crown jewel of next year's collection is codenamed "Ferrari," and will feature a major redesign, packed with new features such as an all-glass display, wireless charging, "invisible" home button, and bezel-less OLED screen.
Why New Changes Will Be Seen Only On iPhone 8
Perhaps you are wondering why the new features will be limited to just one model of the iPhone. As other lower-priced phone manufacturers are gaining traction, the prices of the iPhone 7s series are expected to drop to help Apple gain some of the mid-range market share.
Another reason is that OLED panels — a major improvement from the LCD screens being used on the latest iPhones — are in limited supply. Building only one iPhone model with all the new features will ensure that the OLED display manufacturer will be able to keep up with the demand, and at the same time, will allow Apple to offer lower-priced models.
Excitement Over OLED
The OLED display technology has been used by other premium smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung. LCD screens depend on a backlight panel, while OLED pixels create their own light, resulting in thinner displays, superior contrast, better power efficiency, and an improved battery life.
Unfortunately, therein lies the problem. Apple is depending on just one company for its OLED screens. Canon Tokki Corp. has spent the past two decades manufacturing high-quality OLED screens within the Niigata prefecture of Japan. The company has a monopoly of machines that create screens with light-emitting diodes, resulting in vibrant displays that OLED is known for.
Canon Tokki Corp. is going through a backlog in production, which could pose a production bottleneck problem for Apple. The company is facing demand from its current crop of customers, such as Samsung Display, LG Display, and Sharp. The waiting period for a new machine that produces these screens is two years.
"We are doing all we can to increase output and make that wait shorter," said Teruhisa Tsugami, Canon Tokki's CEO.
It appears that the fate of the widely anticipated iPhone 8 now rests on an unheard-of company located in a rural Japan countryside.
