Expectations are running high for the iPhone 8, expected to be Apple’s tenth anniversary model set for release this year. Every day there’s yet another new rumor or two—or a repeat of old rumors with a murmur or shred of “evidence” some believe means that the old rumor is actually true. In this case, one key Apple supplier just unveiled a new plastic bendable display, while another supplier has apparently been selling new proximity sensors like they’re going out of style.
Will the iPhone 8 feature a bendable display?
Japan Display, a key supplier for Apple, showed off a bendable plastic liquid crystal display this week, and the tech community quickly picked this story up and ran with it, linking the new LCDs to the iPhone 8. Of course it’s anyone’s guess whether the new screens are destined for the iPhone 8, but there’s one big problem with the suggestion that they are. Japan Display expects to begin mass production on the flexible displays in 2018, so unless Apple is going to disappoint its fans and not release the iPhone 8 this year, it’s highly unlikely that the new flexible displays will be available this year.
If Apple does ever use the LCDs in its iPhone lineup though, some believe that they could offer some tough competition to Samsung’s hugely popular Galaxy Edge line. Japan Display’s new LCD is 5.5 inches in size, and it’s called the Full Active Flex screen. While it isn’t quite as flexible as an OLED screen, The Wall Street Journal reports that it is flexible enough to bend around the edges of a smartphone. The newspaper cited Japan Display Chief Operating Officer Shuji Aruga.
Proximity sensors for the iPhone 8?
Also this week, STMicroelectronics said when reporting its 2016 earnings results that it had won a major deal with a big customer able to generate “substantial revenues” in the second half of this year. According to Reuters, Liberum analyst Janardan Menon is advising clients that STMicroelectronics is probably making some kind of new proximity sensors for the iPhone 8. The timeframe would be accurate, as the iPhone 8 is expected to be released in the second half of this year.
The company posted results for 2016 that were in line with expectations, and Menon believes that the results reflect demand from smartphones like Apple’s iPhone 7 and also automakers.
