iPhone 7S Leak Reveals Apple Has Problems

Technology

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Now following two independent reports that “technically challenging” issues will cause Apple AAPL +0.10% to delay the 2017 flagship iPhone, comes a third from yet another credible source…

Backing up news from Bloomberg and KGI’s famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, is Nikkei - the world’s largest financial newspaper. In its report Nikkei explains:

“The production of iPhone's 10th anniversary range has hit a snag as suppliers struggle to perfect key components including display, wireless charging and printed circuit boards, people familiar with the company said.”

2017 iPhone concept based on the latest leaks. Image credit: Concept Creator

Breaking these down, Nikkei says Samsung is struggling to supply the OLED panels Apple will use in its new flagship iPhone while it quotes Arthur Liao of Taipei-based Fubon Securities as saying Apple is struggling with overcome overheating with its wireless charging modules. Lastly it cites IDC analyst Sean Kao as revealing there are problems with the mass production of the model’s circuit boards.

And yet there is good news here as well. For starters Kao says the production problems only arise because “There is a new design for a much smaller printed circuit board to allow a more powerful battery for this upcoming iPhone”.

Furthermore with previous reports warning Apple was working on a more modest backup Plan B, the combination of Bloomberg, Kuo and Nikkei all saying Apple is prepared to accept a release date delay rather than compromise will what customers want to hear. Even if the delays (Nikkei says up to two months) put the release uncomfortably close to Christmas.

2017iPhone concept by Concept Creator illustrates the very thin bezels the phone is expected to have

2017 iPhone concept by Concept Creator illustrates the very thin bezels the phone is expected to have

As such with these release day revelations coming on the back of significant feature leaks, perhaps the strangest thing about the 2017 iPhone is we don’t yet know what it will be called.

Logically the successor to the iPhone 7 should be the ‘iPhone 7S’ (as listed in this headline), but iPhone 8 (odd in a 10th anniversary year), iPhone X (illogical after Apple dropped ‘macOS X’), iPhone Edition (clunky?) and even ‘iPhone’ are also all being proposed.

One thing is for certain though, if the new flagship 2017 iPhone is being delayed so Apple ensures it is worthy of being a 10th anniversary edition then no-one is going to care what it’s called…

Source: forbes