New reporting from The Korea Herald appears to be surfacing what is likely old information about the iPhone 8 launch. Citing industry sources, the report claims the OLED iPhone won’t be unveiled until November due in part to design decisions with Touch ID not yet being finalized.
Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, which often presents reliable information, released a more optimistic forecast earlier this week predicting the OLED iPhone will debut with very limited supply alongside the new LCD iPhones.
The Korea Herald report doesn’t just seem to miss the boat on OLED iPhone launch timing. It also hints that Apple relocated the Touch ID to the back of the iPhone after failing to integrate the fingerprint sensor in with the display as originally planned.
But sources said Apple may have ditched the plan recently due to technical glitches like its archrival Samsung Electronics did for the current Galaxy S8. The Korean company also failed to embed a fingerprint scanner into the front screen and placed the sensor on the back of the device.
“The iPhone’s rear design has not yet been finalized. We are still awaiting Apple’s final decision before shipping parts,” he said, hinting that the phone is also likely to have a fingerprint scanner on the back.
While we have certainly seen plenty of alleged iPhone 8 dummy units claiming to show rear Touch ID, we can look at more reliable predicting and reporting from KGI and Bloomberg that tells us Touch ID won’t be found on the OLED iPhone. In its place, new facial recognition features are expected which have been backed up by references in iOS 11 found in the mistakenly distributed HomePod firmware leak.
If we disregard today’s likely outdated reporting and instead refer again to KGI, we can expect the OLED iPhone to be unveiled sometime next month and ship in extremely short supply alongside the new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch LCD iPhones. KGI predicts 2-4 million or less at launch with production ramping up into the next quarter.
For more, head to our iPhone 8 guide for all the latest rumors and predictions.
Top iPhone 8 render image via Forbes
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments