Tech2: Apple not expected to have AR capability on its next iPhone, says Counterpoint Research
Apple is all set to launch its tenth year anniversary edition of the iPhone come September. Now even though there are still over two quarters to go before the big Apple event, speculations about the iPhone 8 have already started. So far, we know that the Apple iPhone 8 could have an all glass design, it may not have any buttons, it may have a curved display, there could be three models, and more.
One of the major speculations is around the display. It seems like Apple will most likely eschew the LCD display for an OLED one. Considering Samsung has been releasing OLED display sporting phones for a few generations now, it seems like Apple will finally make the jump to this display technology. We reached out to analysts at Counterpoint Research for some insight into this.
“While OLED has long been in the market, Apple did not adopt it due to its limited availability as the company would require large volumes for its iPhones. Introducing OLED would also reduce the overall profitability due to higher cost of display. It is expected that only one of the three new iPhones will be sporting a curved OLED due to its limited availability,” said Shobhit Srivastava, research associate, mobile devices and ecosystems at Counterpoint Research.
The Apple iPhone 7/7 Plus were not very different in terms of looks from their predecessors. If you take aside the dual camera module on the 7 Plus, there was just internal iterative updates on the succeeding generation of the iPhone. Srivastava tells us that Apple has preferred to go with mainstream technologies for its smartphones.
“Having a strong customer base the company is less pressured from the consumers to deliver on latest technologies. Healthy competition and continuous innovation from its rivals do push the company to go further and this being the 10th year anniversary for Apple's iPhone, it is going to be special, and hence the expected three iPhone launch and extended specification list,” said Srivastava.
Considering Google has already released the Daydream VR platform and the Tim Cook’s interest in augmented reality, it would point to the fact that Apple should release an AR capable iPhone 8. But Counterpoint Research seems to think otherwise.
“The upcoming version of iPhone is not expected to have AR capabilities as it [AR] is still not mainstream and the lack of applications contribute further to that. Apple will concentrate on improving its virtual assistant Siri and we expect the company to open Siri for third party consumer devices in 2017 to compete with rivals Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa,” said Srivastava.
The iPhone’s passed the ten-year mark, which is quite long for any electronic device in terms of shelf life. The design of the iPhone has not changed in the past three iterations and while many do not have issues with it, it is getting a bit stale coming from a trendsetter. So would the iPhone 8 have a radical design language?
“Although the iPhone has completed ten years, the device has gone through significant changes over the years. iPhone has already been a hero product for the company as it accounts for the largest share in its revenue and will continue to do so for the company,” assured Srivastava.
Comments