Move Over iPhone 7, The Wait for 7S Has Started | TechTree.com

Move Over iPhone 7, The Wait for 7S Has Started

Barely a week after the design-and-water resistant phone was launched, the rumor mill has started churning over its successor

 

If Tim Cook isn’t worried now, he must either have nerves of steel or he doesn’t bother reading what newspapers (if so, I am ready to become his fan boy!) and websites have to say about Apple’s iconic smartphone brand that has made fan boys drool for close to a decade and critics growl for just about the same timeframe.

More than the criticism about the latest edition of the iPhone being design resistant and water resistant, what should be worrisome is the almost immediate resumption of the rumor mills suggesting that the successor of the iPhone 7, slated to arrive this time next year, could do away with the home button.

A report published in the New York Times quotes a Bloomberg report to suggest that Apple had decided to include FeliCa tap-to-pay support as well as the removal of the home button would get released as part of a dramatic redesign. It would be pertinent to mention here that next year would be the iPhone’s 10th anniversary.

For those of you who might wonder what FeliCa is, it is nothing but a tap to pay application that allows passengers to pay for mass-transit rides – albeit only in Japan for the moment – thus reducing the need to carry physical payment cards.

Of course, some of these rumors have been doing the rounds for close to five or six years and the New York Times report is quick to remind us that when these rumors first surfaced “It was plausible that the component (home button) could be replaced by a software analog that frees up space for a larger display.”

However, once Touch ID landed, the chances of the home button going away appeared remote. Now, fan boys were expecting a solid-state pressure-sensitive Force Touch ID module, which failed to materialize in the iPhone 7. With the lukewarm respose to the latest launch, we believe it is hardly surprising that they are once again looking ahead.

Of course, one does not expect the phone to ditch the Touch ID completely. What they could do is somehow integrate the technology directly into the display unit. There were some rumors last year of a possible ‘touch and display’ driver single-chip solution that could allow fingerprint sensors to be embedded into the display unit. Till now, it has been pure science fiction!

Given that Apple redesigns the iPhone every two years, one cannot logically expect something unique in the fall of 2017. However, given that Tim Cook hasn’t really delivered on promise with the latest release, the company might just be forced to take a mid-stream course correction next year.

Thus, what the New York Times says might well come true. They are suggesting a completely revamped design with dual curved glass panels and OLED display. The logic for a 2016 release being that Apple is waiting for some advanced technology to mature before committing to a redesign.

Makes for one more reason to avoid the iPhone 7 at this point in time. We do hope Tim Cook does get to read the ‘writing on the wall’. 


TAGS: Apple, Apple iPhone 7, Tim Cook

 
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