The iPhone 8: is it a dream at the moment? The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are pretty hot out of the oven, and here we are with rumors of the upcoming iPhone 8. I suppose this is the nature of the industry -- there is never a dull moment, and you can be sure that advancements are always being made behind the scenes so that folks will be able to look forward to the next best thing. It seems that one of the more notable rumors surrounding the iPhone 8 would be the handset being bezel-free.
That would certainly translate to a departure from the existing iPhone design that still has a bezel. According to a leak from an Israeli Apple employee, Apple is ‘working on iPhone 8 right now’. How true that is, remains to be ascertained, but it has certainly set tongues wagging. A bezel-free iPhone is possible after Apple picked up the display-integrated sensor patent not too long ago.
There are also signs that point to Apple intending to integrate the Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 8's screen, while analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also did predict that the iPhone 8 will come with an all-glass design. Will these changes be able to help Apple maintain their momentum of iPhone sales? After all, sales of the device -- and the mobile market in general, is not exactly in its heydays as when the first few editions of the iPhone were released, forming insane queues before the handset actually launched.
With 2017 being the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone, there might be no iPhone 7S -- which could be attributed instead to the introduction of several major innovations in the iPhone 8: a full glass OLED screen for instance, better haptic feedback features, wireless charging capability (at long last!) as well as an improved camera and processor -- the latter two tend to be the norm with Apple devices.
Kulbinder Garcha, an analyst, is even bold enough that the iPhone 8 will be a winner, citing sales of 250 million units in fiscal 2018 -- which is a reflection of the iPhone 8’s sales in 2017, as opposed to the predicted iPhone 7 sales of 215 million in 2016.
Such confidence might not have so strong a foundation to stand on. After all, it is not as though the Android sector has remained stagnant for so many years. In fact, the hardware found in flagship Android smartphones tend to be superior to the iPhone in many aspects, but not all. There is also the issue of stagnation to grapple with, as smartphone manufacturers find it even more difficult to push their wares based on hardware specifications alone.
When would the iPhone 8 be released? If one were to take history into consideration, then the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus which were released in the autumn of 2016 would mean that the iPhone 8 would follow at least one year down the road. It would not make any sense to release the iPhone 8 any earlier, as the element of buyer remorse and betrayal might seep in then.
One thing's for sure, when the iPhone 8 arrives, it is going to be far from affordable!
