Launch of next-generation iPhone 8 may be pushed to October or November, says report

The iPhone 8 may debut later than we have been used to, according to a new report. For the last few years, Apple has announced its new iPhone lineup at a September event in the fall with a release date a couple weeks later. For example, the iPhone 7 was announced on September 7th and released on September 16th.

This year, Economic Daily News (via Digitimes) is suggesting that the launch may be pushed back to October or November, as production of the radical new iPhone has faced challenges …

The paper cites ‘technical issues’ as the reason for the delay compared to recent history, with suppliers struggling to perfect the lamination process of curved OLED panels and adoption of the 3D sensing front camera system.

Apple has launched its new iPhone model in September every year since the iPhone 5; the iPhone 4s debuted in early October. Before that, iPhone models went on sale in June.

Although reports about Apple facing production issues seem to appear every year, there is some supporting evidence here. An independent report from early March has already said that the iPhone 8 (which is not necessarily the final marketing name of the flagship 2017 iPhone) would ship later than September as Apple needed time to ramp production of the 3D front camera components.

Another point to consider is that Foxconn has been pretty quiet on the leaks front, given the calendar. By April, we normally see a flood of next-gen iPhone cases, schematics leak and blurry photos from the factory floor.

This is yet to happen for iPhone 8. Either Apple has tightened security to improve secrecy … or the devices are yet to be produced in mass quantities. Digitimes previously claimed that the iPhone 8 would not go into mass production until September although fabrication of Apple A11 chips will apparently start rolling this month.

Even if the availability of the iPhone 8 ultimately turns out to be October or November, this doesn’t preclude Apple from holding their fall event in September regardless. They could unveil the new phone with a longer lead time until launch.

With rumors that Apple is preparing three new iPhone models this year, it is also very plausible that the company launches the two minor-upgrade devices in September to fill the gap until the radical redesigned OLED device debuts a month or two later.

Apple could also simply announce the iPhone 8 as going on sale in late September as usual, but have fewer units available to buy so that the device is back-ordered for a longer period, effectively pushing the general availability date into the November timeframe, echoing the launch of the Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus.

There is a lot of hype for this new phone. The iPhone 8 is expected to feature an all-new industrial design with a glass and stainless steel chassis, a 5.8-inch gently-curved edge-to-edge OLED display, a bezel-less front, a 3D depth-sensing front camera, wireless charging, a virtual Home Button with integrated Touch ID fingerprint sensor, facial recognition and much more.

All this new technology has also resulted in many reports claiming that the iPhone 8 will be the most expensive iPhone yet, with prices potentially above $1000. Apple is also expected to introduce modest updates to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, dubbed ‘7s’ phones with mainly internal components upgrades, at normal iPhone prices.