Apple won’t unveil the iPhone 7 until sometime in September if history repeats itself, but recent leaks already offer plenty of details about its design and features. The handset is expected to have a similar appearance to the iPhone 6/6s series, but Apple is rumored to fix the main design “flaws” in previous-generation iPhones: The ugly antenna lines on the back and the annoying protruding rear camera lens.
As for the main camera, more and more sources indicate that at least one version of the iPhone 7 Plus will have a dual-lens camera on the back. The handset is also supposed to be thinner than previous models, with the headphone jack supposedly going away. Now, yet another new report backs up that claim.
MUST SEE: 15 paid iPhone apps on sale for free right now
Some have explained that the real reason for removing the headphone jack isn’t just about slimming down the iPhone. Instead, the company might be looking to increase the screen-to-body ratio of the phone, and that’s why the headphone jack needs to go.
Whatever the case, a new report from Digitimes says that FPCB demand will increase slightly next year. FPCB stands for flexible printed circuit boards, which are components used in very thin devices in place of regular PCBs.
According to suppliers, FPCB demand will increase slightly in 2016, although total iPhone shipments might be lower this year than in 2015. FPCB shipments should decline in the first half of the year, and increase in the second half as Apple prepares for the launch of the new iPhone 7.
Suppliers said that a continued reduction in the thickness of the iPhone and the adoption of larger 3D Touch displays have resulted in the increase of FPCB products.
It’s too early to say how thin the iPhone 7 will be, but the device will certainly come with 3D Touch functionality, just like its predecessor, as Apple is likely to further expand the feature’s reach in the future. The increase in FPCB components does seem to suggest that Apple will need even more flexible parts for devices that might be thinner than the iPhone 6s. Plugged-in analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said last year that the iPhone 7 will be between 6.0 and 6.5 millimeters thick.
There’s also more news on the camera front. Sony, which supplies sensors for the iPhone, said that “major smartphone players” will adopt dual-lens cameras this year.
The announcement came during the company’s recent earnings call, XperiaBlog reports. Sony did not name Apple as one of the major smartphone players, but did confirm that dual cameras are in the works for this year.
“Well, for next year, our so-called dual lens – dual camera platform will be launched by, we believe, from major smartphone players,” Sony CFO Kenichiro Yoshida said when asked about dual camera adoption over the next years, and its impact.
“However, as I said previously, recently, our smartphone market is growing and particularly, our high-end smartphone market is now slowing down. So, that may impact the demand or production schedule of dual camera smartphones by the major smartphone manufacturers. So, we believe the real start, the takeoff of smartphone with dual lens camera will be in the year of 2017.”
