iPhone 8: Suppliers Express Excitement on Apple's Next Premium Smartphone
Analysts have recently shared that even suppliers of smartphone components are excited about the finished product of Apple's next premium mobile device dubbed as the iPhone 8.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Wamsi Mohan shared in a note to clients that companies that are part of Apple's supply chain are "enthusiastic" about the highly anticipated device. "We met with several suppliers that are excited about the upcoming launch of the iPhone 8," Mohan added, according to CNBC.
Mohan reiterated some previously rumored specs for the iPhone 8 as well. He agrees that there is going to be three new iPhone models this year. As previous speculations shared, iPhones 7s and 7s Plus will be launched alongside the iPhone 8. And according to Mohan, all these variants will sport a glass bodywork on the front and rear side and will all support wireless charging.
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"The frame is expected to be stainless steel in the OLED [display] model and aluminum in the other two. Given the significant content increase, in our opinion, [Apple] will raise the ASP [average selling price] significantly for the iPhone 8," Mohan added in the same note.
Being the premium phone, iPhone 8 is rumored to exclusively sport the organic light-emitting diode panel while the other variants will most probably stick with the liquid crystal display.
A recent collective research note from Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis, Christopher Hemmelgarn, Thomas O'Malley and Jerry Zhang was obtained by MacRumors. And on one quoted excerpt, the document contains some forecasts which match what Mohan said.
The analysts agree that people from the supply chain "generally had good things to say about the upcoming iPhone 8 launch (for our purposes iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone Pro) as new features drive a more complicated manufacturing process and higher ASPs."
Since the iPhone 8 will sport OLED panels, several concept images suggest that the upcoming device will ship with a curved display. Another famous speculated design feature for the iPhone 8 are much thinner bezels that would allow for a bigger screen and would require the ditching of the physical home key.
Despite the clamor that is already building up for the yet to be announced smartphone, analysts are still expecting that Apple will not be ready with enough stocks of the iPhone 8 on its first day launch.
From the same Barclays note, it is expected that the "majority" of the upcoming premium iPhone variant will be shipped within the last quarter of 2017 though the launch will generally happen in September.
