Rumors have it that for its tenth year anniversary, the next iPhone will be radically reengineered inside and out and the massive redesign will lead to higher sticker price on release date. The iPhone 8 in 2017 will sell up to $200 more from the basic iPhone 7 Plus tag, the price hike justified by fresh killer features such as touch control buttons.
Not only that the sequel to the iPhone 7 will ditch the iconic Home button but also likely most of the handset's control keys like the volume rocker and the power/sleep switch. This, according to Forbes, was hinted by Apple's newly-unearthed patent filing titled "Electronic Devices with Display and Touch Sensor Structures". The basic design goal is to bump physical control keys off a device and in their instead - flat button with embedded sensors.
"This patent describes a technique where touch sensors can be placed around any side of a device allowing for new input sources," the report said, adding that the technology will also allow Apple to remove nearly all physical keys from the next iPhone model.
Switching to touch-driven control keys from mechanical button could pave the way for interesting UI tweaks. Forbes envisions that if a touch sensor will be placed on the back plate of future iPhones then "quick scrolling or page turning," could be performed by touching the rear of the device.
Of note is that the tech is not exactly new as Google's Pixel phones have the same feature. But Apple implementing the change in time for the next iPhone deployment is not remoted at all. In the past two years, the tech giant's introduction of 3D Touch in the iPhone 6S and the capacitive Home button with the iPhone 7 was seen as precursors for the planned migration to better control button technology.
And this plus the bevy of new iPhone features packed for the refresh in 2017 appear to warrant a steep price hike. Pointing to rumors that came from supply chain sources, WCCFTech said in a report that the iPhone 8 is likely sell with $200 premium from that of the iPhone 7 Plus basic price.
As the 7 Plus sells for $769, this means that the iPhone 8 will start at $969 once it hits the market. But to be clear, the mark is for the 5.8-inch variant with curved OLED display panel. Speculations are rife that three iPhone flavors are touching down next year - the 4.7-inch build, the phablet 5.5-inch edition and the supersized version that will be the priciest of the bunch.
The iPhone 8 release date is expected to happen September 2017 but if recent rumors will prove correct that mass production of the device will not start until July or August of the same year then the rollout time could be delayed to October or November.