Why you might want to give the iPhone 8 a miss
Everything we hear about Apple's much-anticipated tenth-anniversary iPhone 8 suggests that it's going to be priced at well over $1,000. But if all you want is an OLED display, you might be better off waiting a year.
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This is because Nikkei Asian Review is reporting two industry sources are claiming that Apple will switch all its iPhones to OLED displays in 2018.
Apple has started to design new iPhones for release in 2018, but its plans are subject to change. The company has a record of tweaking product specifications and lineup along the way, staying flexible to accommodate market forces and component quality.
Sources in the OLED production equipment industry suggest that panel makers may not be able to produce enough to meet demand if Apple uses OLED displays in all new iPhones in 2018.
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So, basically you can pay the big bucks for the iPhone 8 (or whatever it ends up being called), or wait a year and pick up an OLED display for a far more reasonable price.
Some other takeaways from this:
- It's a big win for Samsung, which has been investing heavily in OLED to bring the technology to market. Not many companies have the capacity to produce OLED displays in the sort of volume that Apple would require, and Samsung would be at the top of that short list.
- Putting OLED into all new iPhones in 2018 would encourage upgrading at all levels.
- It would finally bring the iPhone lineup more on par with high-end Android smartphones, where OLED displays can be found in a number of devices.
- This -- if true -- suggests that the tenth-anniversary iPhone 8 is less a mainstream product and more a niche limited edition for people with more money than sense, along the lines of the solid-gold or ceramic Apple Watch.
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