According to the latest reports, tech giant Apple has already started work on the iPhone 8.
While the iPhone 7 is only a few weeks old, it should come as no surprise that Apple is already preparing its successor. The 2017 Apple smartphone is widely expected to be called the iPhone 8, and commentators believe it will be released in September next year. Now a report cites an Apple employee at an office in Israel, who says that work has started on hardware for the iPhone 8.
Apple to introduce groundbreaking new design for iPhone 8
While little is known about the iPhone 8, it is rumored that Apple will introduce a completely new design for the smartphone. MacRumors has previously reported that the iPhone 8 will feature an edge-to-edge display that gets rid of the top and bottom bezels.
An employee at the Apple office in Herzliya, Israel, reports that some iPhone 8 hardware is being made at the site. The employee claims that Apple employees in Israel work on each of the new products that Apple releases.
Business Insider continues to conceal the identity of the employee, who solders components at the Apple site. The source reportedly didn’t give much away about the iPhone 8, but did say that it was set to be “different” from the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7. Both of these existing smartphones came in for criticism due to the similarities with their predecessors.
iPhone 8 or iPhone 7s?
The employee spoke to Business Insider outside the Herzliya office, and said that employees in Israel were busy working on the “next” Apple products. They mentioned the iPhone 8 specifically.
Business Insider says that the employee used the term “iPhone 8” of their own accord. There has been some debate as to whether the next iPhone would be called iPhone 7s or iPhone 8.
Under the normal two-year development cycle at Apple, the 2017 iPhone should be called the iPhone 7s. However given that the iPhone 7 was more of an incremental upgrade on the iPhone 6s, it could be that Apple will skip to iPhone 8 when it rings the changes with the 2017 smartphone.
According to the source, the iPhone 8 will have an improved camera. However this is normal when a new Apple smartphone is released.
Herzliya facility is around 4 years old
The journalist informed the source that they were speaking to the press prior to the conversation, and the source spoke only broken English. They later said that Apple uses the Herzliya facility for “new products” but later added that no products are assembled in Israel.
A second employee told Business Insider that they “couldn’t talk” about what went on at Herzliya. An employee for Cisco, which has an office nearby, said: “I have three friends that work there. They work on the hardware side. Verifications. Something like that.”
A security guard at the Apple facility told journalists that they couldn’t speak to staff without an appointment. The Herzliya site has around 800 staff and was opened around 4 years ago. It is found some 15 kilometers north of the center of Tel Aviv.
What is Apple going to do next?
Herzliya was set up following Apple’s acquisition of two startups. In 2012 the company took over flash memory designer Anobit, while it also acquired 3D sensor developer PrimeSense in 2013. Since then Apple has also acquired Israeli camera company LinX.
A source close to Apple reportedly said that Herzliya is a research-and-development facility used to work on new hardware including storage, chips, cameras and wireless technologies. A report in The Times of Israel cites Apple CEO Tim Cook as saying that Herzliya is the company’s second largest R&D facility around the world.
Elsewhere in Israel Apple also has an office in Haifa, in the north of the country. Around 200 employees work at the site.
According to Avi Hasson, chief scientist of the Ministry of Economy of the State of Israel, nearly all of the major tech firms from Silicon Valley have a facility in Israel. He called the country a “fountain of innovation.”
It certainly sounds as though Israel could be where Apple is working on the iPhone 8. While we can’t yet be sure whether the upcoming smartphone will have a ceramic body, an edge-to-edge display or a completely new design, it does look like Apple will make some major changes.
After all 2017 marks the tenth birthday of the iPhone, and Apple will probably want to mark the milestone. Exactly how it does so remains a mystery for now, but that won’t stop people from speculating.
It looks like we can expect some more leaks from Herzliya concerning the iPhone 8.
