Next year will see Apple significantly overhaul the iPhone’s design by putting in a 5.8-inch AMOLED display and new curved glass casing, predicts reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo, known for his record of highly accurate predictions about future Apple products, expresses his company’s expectation of “a structural design similar to that of iPhone 4/4S, meaning it will be equipped with glass on both the front and back sides, and a metal frame surrounded the edges.”
In further predictions quoted by MacRumors, Kuo suggests that the new iPhone for 2017 will also likely come with wireless charging and additional biometric recognition technology. It looks like facial or Iris recognition in particular could be in the works.
Kuo adds that, with sufficient availability of the necessary AMOLED displays, the 5.8-inch iPhone should replace the 5.5-inch variant in Apple’s lineup. However, he believes that, if AMOLED display production ends up falling short, the 5.8-inch iPhone will be offered in addition to the usual 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch choices.
These reported plans, if genuine, mark a major change of course for Apple, which typically makes sweeping design changes to the iPhone on a two-year cycle. Recent leaks about the iPhone expected to arrive this fall suggest a design only subtly different from that of the iPhone 6S.
