Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of securities brokerage company KGI Securities — who has a strong track record in predicting Apple’s future product plans — predicted the three new iPhones will be announced at the same time and share the same launch date.
However, the iPhone 8 smartphone, which some have started calling an “iPhone Pro,” will initially be in extremely short supply, producing between two million and four million units this quarter. It will also be available in just three colors: black, silver and gold.
But production is expected to increase quickly, reaching between 45 million and 50 million iOS units later this year. Kuo expects Apple will produce between 35 million and 38 million of the 4.7-inch iPhone 7s units, and another 18 million to 20 million 5.5-inch of the iPhone 7s Plus smartphones.
While Kuo says the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus are already in mass production, he suggested the models will also come in the same three colors and look largely like their predecessors, featuring the same LCD display technology Apple has used for years.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 8 is expected to enter the product verification test phase in late August, right before mass production begins in mid-September. The iOS device is expected to have an edge-to-edge organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display with an even higher resolution than the iPhone 7 Plus, as well as a 5.15-inch display area with a resolution of 2,436 by 1,125 pixels. The iPhone 8 smartphone is rumored to feature advanced facial recognition technology that could replace Touch ID.