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Following last week's rumor that Apple is looking to adopt thinner in-cell touch technology for the display of the next-generation iPhone, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who recently took on a new position with KGI Securities, has issued a report looking at how that change could help Apple reduce the thickness of the iPhone from the current 9.3 mm of the iPhone 4S to under 8 mm. The move would help Apple to compete against its Android-based challengers, which have continued to see reductions in their thickness over time.
Since Apple's smartphone competitors have generally slimmed down their high-end offerings to 7-8mm, Apple needs to make a leap forward from 4S' 9.3mm thickness. We believe Apple will aim at 8mm or below (at least 1.4mm slimmer) for iPhone 5, in a bid to ensure brisk sales through 2014, while peers will also continue to introduce increasingly slim models next year.

As such, all iPhone 4S components that account for thickness must be slimmer, specifically, touch panel, battery and casing. Moreover, a marginal amount of space is required between the three parts for the sakes of assembly tolerance and thermal expansion of components.
Kuo calculates that shifting to in-cell touch technology in the next iPhone will yield Apple just shy of 0.5 mm in terms of a reduction in thickness. Kuo envisions a similar reduction coming from the battery, which he predicts Apple will be able to broaden somewhat inside the casing, allowing for a roughly 10% reduction in battery thickness.

A final 0.5 mm reduction in thickness could come from the use of a metal back case, which could come in at half the thickness of the glass back used in the current iPhone. Altogether, Apple could shave 1.4 mm from the iPhone's thickness to bring the next-generation model in at just 7.9 mm thick.

iphone_in_cell_thickness.jpg



In yet another argument for the adoption of in-cell touch technology for the display in the next-generation iPhone, Kuo notes that display production would be greatly simplified, with fewer steps in the manufacturing process and fewer vendors being involved resulting in an estimated reduction in production time from 12-16 days to just 3-5 days.

While the initial yield on in-cell touch displays is currently lower than for glass-on-glass manufacturing techniques such as those used for the iPhone 4S, that deficiency can be compensated for by re-bonding in-cell panels and cover glass units with the optically clear resin (OCR) used in the bonding process. The optically clear adhesive (OCA) used in the current manufacturing process can not be re-bonded if the initial bonding fails.

Article Link: In-Cell Touch Technology Could Help Apple Reduce Next iPhone's Thickness by 15%
 

macbook pro i5

macrumors 65816
May 13, 2011
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[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Following last week's rumor that Apple is looking to adopt thinner in-cell touch technology for the display of the next-generation iPhone, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who recently took on a new position with KGI Securities, has issued a report looking at how that change could help Apple reduce the thickness of the iPhone from the current 9.3 mm of the iPhone 4S to under 8 mm. The move would help Apple to compete against its Android-based challengers, which have continued to see reductions in their thickness over time.Kuo calculates that shifting to in-cell touch technology in the next iPhone will yield Apple just shy of 0.5 mm in terms of a reduction in thickness. Kuo envisions a similar reduction coming from the battery, which he predicts Apple will be able to broaden somewhat inside the casing, allowing for a roughly 10% reduction in battery thickness.

A final 0.5 mm reduction in thickness could come from the use of a metal back case, which could come in at half the thickness of the glass back used in the current iPhone. Altogether, Apple could shave 1.4 mm from the iPhone's thickness to bring the next-generation model in at just 7.9 mm thick.

Image


In yet another argument for the adoption of in-cell touch technology for the display in the next-generation iPhone, Kuo notes that display production would be greatly simplified, with fewer steps in the manufacturing process and fewer vendors being involved resulting in an estimated reduction in production time from 12-16 days to just 3-5 days.

While the initial yield on in-cell touch displays is currently lower than for glass-on-glass manufacturing techniques such as those used for the iPhone 4S, that deficiency can be compensated for by re-bonding in-cell panels and cover glass units with the optically clear resin (OCR) used in the bonding process. The optically clear adhesive (OCA) used in the current manufacturing process can not be re-bonded if the initial bonding fails.

Article Link: In-Cell Touch Technology Could Help Apple Reduce Next iPhone's Thickness by 15%

That would be really good:cool:
 

AJH1993

macrumors regular
Oct 26, 2011
154
0
There IS such thing as so thin you cannot grasp it comfortably without feeling like you're gonna drop it... just my opinion though.
 

TrimmTrabb

macrumors member
Apr 10, 2012
46
0
I'm surprised this makes absolutely no mention of the camera sensor. At 7.2mm, the iPod touch is too thin to incorporate the iPhone's camera. This report cites rival phones at 7mm but many of those handsets feature hideous raised bumps on the back where the camera sensor sits. Apple would never make this design tradeoff.
 
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_Refurbished_

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2007
2,333
3,012
I'm all for thinner, as long as they don't reduce battery life.

I hope they get rid of the sharp edges in the next design. Every time I hold my 3GS, I remember how nice it was to hold.
 

Proph3T

macrumors member
Apr 15, 2010
59
0
I hope they don't make the phone thinner. What they should do is make the battery bigger with that extra space. Especially since LTE kills battery life.
 

TMar

macrumors 68000
Jul 20, 2008
1,679
1
Ky
To make it news worthy they also had to remove the back glass to hit a catchy "15% thinner" catchphrase. Why not make up numbers and say the battery is much thinner and make it "50% thinner".
 

DivineEvil

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2009
202
0
keep the thickness and use this tech to give me much better battery life.

Yes! Keep the thickness and give us more battery! I hate this "race to 1mm and 10 grams also 5 inch screen size humungousaurs" crap with companies! And keep the MBPs like that ang just make them a powerhorse... not an Air hybrids... I like the good old days when the phones hold charge for a week or two with medium usage. And I want my iPhone to do that!
 

Imaginethe

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2012
202
5
UK
Does the phone need to be any thinner? The Android phones are also getting much larger, which is not something I am a fan of at all. The extra 10/15% could be used for battery and could really help the phones battery life.
 

swarmster

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2004
640
113
If you'll forgive me the fanboy moment here, I don't really like the implication that Apple is somehow behind in the engineering-for-smallness game. Their competitors make phones a little thinner by ballooning the height and width by inches (volume goes way up) and adding weird protrubances or non-uniform depths. And yet somehow those competitors still get half the battery life.

The things Apple manages to do in the smallest footprints is impressive, and I look forward to them pushing the envelope again.
 

seron

macrumors newbie
Oct 22, 2008
13
0
The race for phone thinness is misguided in my opinion and similar to the megapixel race. Advances in thinner components should be used for fitting a bigger battery as long as battery technology is not advancing. The biggest problem with phones is battery life and not thinness.
 

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,537
398
Middle Earth
The analyst is being silly.

Thinness doesn't matter. Consumers are smart enough to know that thinness means nothing the only common denominator will be total internal volume.

A 5" phone could be 6mm thick but a simple glance would tell you that it's not the device that fits in the back pocket for many that easily.
 

CShort

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2011
109
0
What about the camera!

A thinner phone also means a worse camera, there is a limit to the optics. Reduce the field of view and get a thinner phone or reduce the size of the sensor.
The latter is possible - reduce the size of the sensor because of advancements in sensor tech making better use of available light but it means that the camera won't advance in quality much in the next version.
 

Devie

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2004
556
319
Adelaide, Australia
Why would I want thinner? Vast majority of people go out and put a an extra couple of mm on the damn things instantly anyway with cases. I'd rather a slightly larger screen (to the edge of current design) and improved performance in every way than thinner.
 

GuiyeC

macrumors newbie
Apr 23, 2012
1
0
Why iPhone 5?

The next iPhone is not the 5th iPhone, the 5th iPhone was iPhone 4S, it should be called iPhone 6 or "new iPhone".

And I agree with keeping thickness for more battery, it would be nice that it weighted less though and had a curved back but I still get amazed sometimes with the design of my iPhone 4S.

They should make it more drop and water resistance that would really be a deal breaker for many, I've hold the Samsung Galaxy and it really feels like a piece of plastic that's gonna break.

Try my app "meMind" now in the AppStore.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/memind/id515534015?l=es&ls=1&mt=8
 

One Bad Duck

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2005
89
51
Battery?

Advances in thinner components should be used for fitting a bigger battery as long as battery technology is not advancing. The biggest problem with phones is battery life and not thinness.

Yeah They're going to need it with the LTE chipsets - power hungreh to the MAX
 

thekeyring

macrumors 68040
Jan 5, 2012
3,485
2,147
London
I hope it's not thinner. Anything they've gained by making chips, batteries or screens thinner is great, but use the extra space for batteries.

No one I know complains the iPhone 4S is heavy or too fat for their pocket.
 

diddl14

macrumors 65816
Aug 10, 2009
1,102
1,730
Looking at the numbers it doesn't seem that the in-cell technology is contribution a lot to possibly making it thinner but just the battery?

Didn't Apple just substantially increase the iPad battery to support the new CPU/GPU and LTE chips? Why would this be different for a next iPhone?
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
Kuo envisions a similar reduction coming from the battery, which he predicts Apple will be able to broaden somewhat inside the casing, allowing for a roughly 10% reduction in battery thickness.
Gnashers envisions this reduction being used to add the exact same amount in battery thickness, which together with some broadening allows for a 20% increase in battery life.
 

enfanteribl

macrumors member
Apr 22, 2009
58
0
A thinner phone also means a worse camera, there is a limit to the optics. Reduce the field of view and get a thinner phone or reduce the size of the sensor.
The latter is possible - reduce the size of the sensor because of advancements in sensor tech making better use of available light but it means that the camera won't advance in quality much in the next version.

The HTC One S seems to have a good camera in a 7.8mm chassis, and at a good price point (it is wider/taller, but the thinness hasn't harmed the camera, it seems)
 

Moonjumper

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2009
2,740
2,908
Lincoln, UK
The HTC One S seems to have a good camera in a 7.8mm chassis, and at a good price point (it is wider/taller, but the thinness hasn't harmed the camera, it seems)

But it has a bulge for the camera, as do many Android phones that claim to be thin. You measure your height to the top of your head, not your shoulder. The same is true of phones, the real thickness is the thickest point.

I don't see an iPhone ending up with a bulge.
 
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