Goodbye Home Button: Apple's iPhone 8 May Feature a New Radical Redesign

Apple's next iPhone 7 is to arrive in September 2016, but there are already reports that the iPhone 8's A11 chip design has been finalized. A new report from Bloomberg states that the iPhone 8 will not ship with a mechanical home button.

Manufacturers are said to be "retooling" their factories to build a boatload of OLED screens for the next iPhone.  "Apple is already at work on a major redesign of the iPhone for 2017," the report claims. "One that focuses more heavily on the display by removing the Home button".

IPHONE 8: New Features

Here are a few of the features that you may expect in the Iphone 8 according to a report by Trusted Reviews:

All Glass design: A person with knowledge of Apple's supply chain in Taiwan is reported as saying: "Foxconn has been trying glass chassis since last year."The report claims that the new glass body will be developed in time for the 2017 launch of the iPhone 8. Apple has long been expected to make sweeping changes to its flagship smartphone next year, as 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of iPhone.

OLED/AMOLED display: On August 19, 2016, it emerged that Apple could release a "specialised" version of the iPhone 8 that features an OLED display, leaving other iPhone 8 models using traditional LCD screen technology. That's according to Hendi Susanto, a research analyst at Gabelli & Co, who issued advice to investors after conversations with OLED maker Universal Display.

iOS 11 software: Apple's smartphone software is cyclical, so we're fairly confident that the iPhone 8 will run on iOS 11. While iOS 11 is likely to arrive in September, we're sure to see a beta version for the software far earlier. Apple will probably reveal this at its Worldwide Developer Conference, which we'd expect will take place in June 2017.

Price: Based on previous figures, it's clear that the average for the iPhone 8 is £539. However, by 2017, we wouldn't be surprised to see prices rise to £549. After all, the Samsung Galaxy S7 launched at £569 this year.

The other features include: Wireless charging, 5.8-inch screen, A11 chip and a Intel 7360 LTE modem. Sun Changxu, an analyst at ESM-China, claims the new feature--Wireless Design--was revealed by Apple's mobile supply chain. Changxu also notes that the feature won't be available on the iPhone 7, and that the iPhone 7S name will be skipped over for iPhone 8 next year.

"I think next year's phone, the 2017 model, the one that will come out in September of 2017. What I have heard, now this is not really from the rumor mill but just scuttlebutt that I've heard, is that it will be an all-new form factor." well-connected industry observer John Gruber stated this past May.