“Following on from the use of ceramic materials in the premium Apple Watch Series 2 and the discovery of a number of design patents using the material, there has been an air of anticipation in the geekerati that the presumptively titled iPhone 8 will be built out of ceramic,” Ewan Spence writes for Forbes. “Not so fast, fabrication fans!”
“It has taken time to build up the experience (and the machinery) to accommodate the current production line,” Spence writes. “Moving to ceramics would mean starting again from scratch. Machinery would need to be manufactured, acquired, and installed; the volume of ceramic parts produced would need to be running at new iPhone levels of demand; and the floor space required would not be easily hidden in the supply chain.”
“All of this is not to say that there will never be a ceramic-focused iPhone in the future, but the requirements to do so at the scale required for the full run of the iPhone 8 appear beyond even Apple,” Spence writes. “A shorter run might be possible and the idea of a ‘premium’ iPhone with exotic materials and ludicrous specifications such as a terabyte of memory and extra RAM paired up with design touches such as sapphire crystal for the OLED display, may have a certain appeal in some quarters.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The latter description of a premium iPhone sounds something like a “The Tenth Anniversary iPhone.”
Here’s Jony Ive discussing the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh back in 1997:
SEE ALSO:
Hands-on with the new ceramic Apple Watch Edition Series 2 – September 26, 2016
iPhone 8 to be made of Zirconia Ceramic? – September 14, 2016
Apple patent app reveals method to manufacture hardened ceramics with zirconia particles – August 6, 2015
Jonathan Ive discusses Apple’s Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh in 1997 (with video) – November 16, 2012
Definitively, Steve Jobs created Jony Ive. Look how he looked back at that time and his designs, you can tell the after Steve Jobs and the After Steve ohs in Jony’s life.
The other comment was not mine. Mine is that I am, metaphorically, holding my breath for LiquidMetal for iPhone 8. I think it will be a real differentiator.
Steve did NOT create Jony. He did discover the man and recognize his talents.
Big difference.
I’m, metaphorically, holding my breath for LiquidMetal. I think it could be a major differentiator.
I’m holding a 5S, not my breath.