Report: iPhone 8 On Track For September Launch But In Limited Quantity

We still may be months away from an official device announcement, let alone a launch into the marketplace, but analysts and well-placed individuals are still having their say on what they believe to be Apple’s plans for the iPhone 8.

This time around it is Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis, Christoper Hemmelgarn, Thomas O’Malley, and Jerry Zhang, who are suggesting that Apple will still penetrate the market with a high-end, OLED iPhone 8 this coming September, but that supply of the unit will be limited until later in the fourth quarter.

There’s been literally a ton of debate about the future of the iPhone. Some industry insiders have suggested that Apple will launch with three new models later this year, whereas others have predicted that the company will once again stick to traditional release patterns with two new versions of the hardware.

Out of those who are predicting a third device, they pretty much agree that we can expect to see what will likely be an iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, as well as high-end, 10th anniversary edition device with an edge-to-edge display and function area, which has been dubbed either iPhone 8, iPhone Edition, or even iPhone Pro in some circles.

The Barclays analysts are amongst that group, and do still expect Apple to launch a third model on top of the upgraded iPhone 7s units, but also expect that model to be extremely limited in supply, with shipping and availability likely to move into the multiple weeks within minutes of pre-orders being made available.

An excerpt from the report reiterates that belief:

Suppliers generally had good things to say about the upcoming iPhone 8 launch (for our purposes iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone Pro) as new features drive a more complicated manufacturing process and higher ASPs. We now believe that all three devices will feature wireless charging and will all be launched in the normal September timeframe, although the majority of iPhone Pro volumes may not be available until Q4.

From a product design and feature perspective, the high-end “iPhone 8” will of course come with iOS 11 pre-installed, and also looks likely to be the first iPhone model to be equipped with an OLED panel. Analysts have also predicted that the hardware will come with a new internal stacked logic board design to make room for a larger capacity battery and an internal component reshuffle.

(Via: MacRumors, Top image: iPhone 8 and iOS 11 concept)

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