Customers stand beneath an Apple logo. (Photo : Reuters/Mike Segar)
Apple's iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have yet to reach store shelves but early whispers on its successor, dubbed for now as the iPhone 7, seem tempting enough to skip the latest model. The next iPhone, rumors say, is a muscle car in the making and the body profile is slimmer than ever.
From the iPhone 6, the 6S actually added heft as Apple introduced Force Touch components to the device's screen panel and labelled it 3D Touch. The direct result is a thicker iPhone 6S at around 7mm and heavier at that.
Will the next version add more weight? Well-known Apple insider Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities is under the impression that the iPhone 7 blueprint is already finalized and the device to come out in 2016 is the slimmest iPhone ever.
Kuo, according to BGR, is predicting of an upcoming design overhaul for the 2016 iPhones with the regular version boasting of incredible thinness between 6mm and 6.5mm. How this fete will be achieved is yet to be disclosed by Kuo's sources, mostly coming from supply chain players operating from Asia, where the iPhone is assembled.
But a new report from China offers some nuggets of clues. Picking up a China Times article, G4Games reported that Apple's manufacturing partners in the region are already preparing for the next iPhone production activities and the first component to get the attention is the A-series application processor.
From A9 in the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 7 will reportedly draw its power from an A10 AP that G4Games said will be exclusively supplied by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC. The A10 chip will be mass produced on a 16-nanometer manufacturing process.
But the detail that interests more is the supposed use of InFO architecture with the A10 chip. InFO, G4Games said, is Integrated Fan Out and is the key for the iPhone 7 to be assembled with System in Package or SiP design. SiP, as earlier reported, is the stacking of iPhone inside components - processors, flash drive, memory chip and sensors - into a single package that frees up space.
With more rooms afforded by the A10 InFO architecture, iPhone engineers can then decide what to do with the extra space. One possibility is the use of larger battery to pump more energy juice to the device or design an iPhone frame with the thickness further trimmed down.
So if the A10 original plan discussed by the report will end up with the iPhone 7 in 2016, Apple can safely expect that the device unboxing next year will produce the slimmest iOS smartphone ever with the power meter likely breaking the previous ceiling levels.
In any case, the iPhone 7 release date timeframe in 2016 should be around the same time of the iPhone 6S' this 2015, which is between September and October.
