KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is at it again. And this time, he shared as many as ten juicy details about Apple's upcoming smartphones.
Kuo's predictions confirmed many of the previous rumors about the three highly-awaited iPhones especially the iPhone 8, Apple's tenth anniversary iPhone. There are a couple of his predictions, however, that the industry is hearing for the first time.
According to Kuo, the iPhone with the OLED display will have the highest screen-to-body ratio among all the current smartphones in the market. In other words, the iPhone 8 will have the slimmest bezels ever. Apple apparently was able to do so by using a notch display design and by integrating the home button in the display.
Despite embedding the home button in the screen, Apple was unable to include its Touch ID fingerprint sensor. In fact, 9to5Mac reported that the iPhone 8 will not have the Touch ID sensor at all. If this rumor is true, this means Apple was unable to solve the problem regarding the placement of the sensor.
Kuo's also predicted that Apple will be rolling out three iPhones this year. The main draw of this year's line-up is the 5.2- or 5.8-inch OLED iPhone which will be the iPhone 8. Apple will also launch the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch LCD models which will likely be the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, respectively. Kuo also said that all three iPhones will be available in 64GB and 256GB storage options.
The OLED iPhone will also come with 3D sensing for facial recognition which will also improve the quality of selfies. Another Kuo prediction is that the OLED iPhone and the 5.5-inch LCD iPhone will have 3GB of DRAM to satisfy the needs of the dual camera. The iPhone 7s will only have 2GB DRAM.
Another prediction by the KGI analyst indicates that the three iPhone models will come with a Lightning port and an embedded USB-C power delivery. Kuo also said that the iPhone 8 will have "better stereo effects" thanks to a more consistent output power of the receiver and speaker. Kuo also predicted that the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus will have more color options than the iPhone 8. Kuo believes that the fewer color options for the iPhone 8 are necessary to "maintain its boutique image."
According to MacRumors, production for the iPhone 8 will ramp-up on October to November. The iPhone 7s and 7s Plus, meanwhile, will see its production increase from August to September. Kuo also speculated that Apple will release all three iPhones "simultaneously in September." Finally, the KGI analyst said that a combined 80 to 85 million units of the three iPhone models, split equally, will be shipped in 2017.
