Apple, which is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the company's first iPhone launch, is reportedly developing a commemorative mobile dubbed iPhone X (aka iPhone 8) for launch in September and recent reports say that it's going to come with major upgrades in terms of design and internal hardware.
Now, Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, renowned for his Apple product predictions, has shared some exciting information sourced directly from the supply chain in China. Kuo claims that iPhone X will come with revolutionary front camera with 3D sensor.
The iPhone 8's front-shooter will work in co-ordination with special 3D sensor (IR-based transmitter and receiver) to snap 2D images with in-depth information of the subject and the scene around it and create 3D selfies. This application is also said to be used as face-and-iris pattern recognition of the device's owner to authenticate and unlock iPhone.
The news comes close on the heels of Apple buying Israel-based RealFace, which has developed a proprietary face-recognition technology that can even differentiate between identical twins.
Kuo also adds that iPhone X's 3D front camera will be made jointly by Sony and Foxconn-owned Sharp. While the former supplies the camera, the latter will provide the 1.4MP IR receivers, 9to5Mac reported.
With front-facing 3D camera, iPhone X users will be able to play AR (Augmented Reality) games on their devices with protagonist featuring 3D image of their own face.
If things go as planned, Apple intends to incorporate similar 3D camera on rear-side of the camera in 2018 series iPhones and eliminate the need for secondary camera, as seen in iPhone 7 Plus.
In a related development, market watchdog TrendForce has released a press note revealing that Apple is pegged to sell more than 100 million 2017-series iPhones, among which, the anniversary iPhone X model will make up for the biggest share compared to the generic 7s and the 7s Plus variants.
Further, the market analyst company, citing reliable sources inside Apple supply partner companies, claims that iPhone 8 will boast of a 5.8-inch super AMOLED screen with 2K (2560x1440p) resolution, but will not feature rumoured curved 3D glass shield due low production yield and drop test results. Instead, Apple has reportedly decided to go with current industry standard of 2.5D glass.
TrendForce also reiterated that iPhone 8 will indeed lose the physical home button as the related functionality will be ingrained right in to the specially developed display. With this change, Apple has succeeded in increasing display aspect ratio to more than 2:1, while the phone's overall body size could be similar to that of the next 4.7-inch model.
Watch this space for latest news on Apple's anniversary iPhone X and the 7s series.
