Apple’s iPhone plans are becoming increasingly controversial, and amid this confusion analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities has come up with new information which possibly is the most radical of the lot. In a new report, Kuo said Apple will completely redesign the iPhone, doing away with the ranges’ famed aluminum chassis and replacing it with an all-glass enclosure.
Apple’s iPhone with all-glass enclosure
Also the all-glass enclosure will be complemented by a new cutting-edge curved OLED display, he said. But there is a problem with all this; the company will reportedly make these changes in 2017 and not in 2016. Kuo claims that Apple has decided to abandon its “tick/tock” external redesign/internal upgrade pattern for iPhone launches.
Therefore, it is very likely that the iPhone 7 will look like the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6S, while the iPhone 8 — scheduled to be released in 2018 — will come with all these changes. While Kuo has not specified why he thinks so, it is possible that the company is doing so because 2017 will mark the tenth anniversary of the iPhone.
However, if this is so, it would not be the first time Apple used glass. It used glass in the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s and achieved mixed success with it. These devices were plagued with problems because of cracked backs, but Kuo argues that the issue should be addressed with advances in glass technology. The use of glass in the iPhone will benefit wireless charging and boost antenna reception.
Is Kuo reliable? Yes…
An important question here is whether Kuo’s report is worth relying on or not, and going by his reputation, it is very reliable. The analyst has a near-perfect track record when it comes to Apple.
It was Kuo who broke the news that the company would come up with a radical 12-inch MacBook and iPad Pro and that the company would shift to larger screen devices with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. In addition, Kuo made accurate predictions about all the major features of the iPhone 6s four months ahead of the device’s launch and also revealed the iPhone SE, including its lower pricing.
The new revelations from Kuo do little to inspire excitement in the upcoming iPhone 7 this year, but this device will surely generate lot of headlines. However, Kuo is bearish on iPhone sales in the near-term, and earlier this month predicted that total iPhone shipments will come in at more than 200 million in 2016.
