It’s iPhone X review day and KGI is out with a new report on what to expect from next year’s iPhone update. Specifically, Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities has issued a new report on the possibility of new iPhones next year gaining TrueDepth Cameras with 3D sensing on the backside like the front cameras on the new iPhone X.
Apple’s new TrueDepth Camera enables features like Face ID for unlocking your iPhone X with facial recognition as well as Animoji for creating animated emoji characters with face tracking. iPhone X includes these features on the front-facing camera, but the rear-facing camera does not offer the same TrueDepth features.
Ming-Chi Kuo predicts this won’t change next year either. In part, KGI says Apple is at least a year ahead of its competition with the current implementation, so there is no dire need to spread the camera system to the back yet. KGI issues this report as a pushback against apparent “market expectations” that the TrueDepth Camera will be on both sides of the iPhone next year.
Other reasons for limiting the TrueDepth Camera to just the front-facing camera, according to KGI, include maintaining selling price and cost as well as ensuring targeted ship times. So without TrueDepth making its way to the back camera, what might the next version of the iPhone X feature? KGI predicts “other spec upgrades to attract customers” which will help cause “total iPhone shipments to rise 10-20% YoY to 245-255m units in 2018.”
The current iPhone X will make up the bulk of sales next year, of course, so the latest model which features an OLED, full-screen design is a big contributing factor to that increase before you even consider what Apple has planned for next year.
KGI does predict, however, that the TrueDepth Camera system will make its way to the iPad Pro line next year with Face ID support. Perhaps the bigger story for the iPhone next year is a Plus-sized version of the current iPhone X potentially. KGI already predicted that next year will not include any major upgrades to the current TrueDepth Camera system, but all new 2018 iPhones are expected to feature it.
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