“Taiwanese display manufacturer AUO has become Apple’s smartphone screen supplier for the upcoming iPhone 7c, reported UDN,” LEDinside reports.According to market rumors, AUO has signed a contract with Apple to ship 4-inch smartphone displays for iPhone 7c by first quarter of 2016. This will be the first time a Taiwanese display manufacturer is sharing iPhone orders with Japanese and Korean manufacturers.”
“This is AUO’s first iPhone order. The company has transformed its L3A and 3B factories into Low Temperature Poly-silicon (LTPS) factories to manufacture iPhone 7C displays to be shipped by first quarter of 2016.,” LEDinside reports. “Japanese manufacturers JDI and Sharp have been traditional iPhone 4-inch display suppliers, but JDI production capacity has been strained from supplying 5.5-inch displays for the iPhone 6 Plus.”
“Despite floating market rumors that sapphire screens will be featured in the upcoming iPhone 7, LEDinside analysts pointed it is highly improbable,” LEDinside reports. “‘Sapphire screens in the upcoming iPhone 7 are very unlikely,’ said Roger Chu, Research Director of LEDinside. ‘Sapphire screened phones will probably be appearing in phones after iPhone 7, since the sapphire supply chain is not ready to meet Apple demands yet.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why wouldn’t this 4-inch “iPhone 7c” debut in the fall along with the other “iPhone 7” models? Seems incongruous to us.
RE: MDN Take:
Maybe they aren’t the sole supplier and thus it will be shipping in the fall as per usual?
This would mean we are looking at a smallish iPhone 7, something along the lines of the iPhone 5. Correct?
The hypothetical concept is that there will be three sizes. The iPhone 7c would be the smallish size, i.e. less expensive.
“First quarter 2016” is October-December 2015, which is certainly around the time the other new iPhone models will be appearing. Nothing incongruous about this at all.
Hopefully it will not be a plastic phone and the displays will not be cheap knock offs from the flagship phablet iPhones. HOPEFULLY!!