Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Each ELVESS OLED machine is actually a vacuum production system that's 328 feet in length and is used to deposit red, blue, and green pixels on a glass surface using evaporating organic materials.​

Humans are geniuses.
 
There Should be a shortage of some component every year I think. Otherwise they are not pushing the technology enough.

Well, leaks can be actually a form of "disclosure" to investors. When facts like these are disclosed in the press, Wallstreet Analysts can re-tune their financial models including expected earnings for the company.

Another reason to disclose news like this would be to disclose this as a type of un-expected capital expense.
 
Its like markerting these days....start the panic about shortages . These stories are just getting predictable now, at least the reasons vary :)
 
I love how the majority of MR posters will blame Apple for this, i.e. "There's an excuse for every single shortage..." Sucks to be Apple these days, well, except for the millions of products they continue to sell.
You must
I love how the majority of MR posters will blame Apple for this, i.e. "There's an excuse for every single shortage..." Sucks to be Apple these days, well, except for the millions of products they continue to sell.


You have to admit though ... this sort of news has been more consistent than the Iphone release in September
 
Well I hope that they go either OLED for all the new models or none at all unless they are going to do something like having 2 models of the same size but one with and one without. Otherwise one size (undoubtedly the large one) is basically the top model.
 
I say this nearly every year and don't follow through, but I may hold off getting the next iPhone if it does have a radical new design.

I've not personally had any major problems with v1 of Apple stuff for years - although I didn't enjoy my 6 Plus - but I suspect the next iPhone will suffer two significant flaws.

One, although it may be a major redesign and form factor change, it might be compromised in a major way - shorter battery life etc.

Two, being a v1 product it'll have an outright design flaw that mars the experience and will inevitably be fixed in the next version.

I say this because I'm completely satisfied with my 7 Plus in all regards, more so than any previous iPhone I've had. Happy to see the headphone jack go personally, battery life is immense, love the new speakers, the wide gamut display is really good, and that 3gb ram means I've never once felt it's constrained in any way. Only thing I'd change is reduce the bezels a bit.

I just get the feeling the next one wil be WOW in the looks department, but have a string of problems and faults given Apples recent track record.

However, given I've had a 5, 5S, 6 Plus, 6S Plus, and now 7 Plus.... I won't follow through and prob buy the next one, heyho! I only skipped the 3GS and 4S, 3G being my first iPhone.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jeffirl
There Should be a shortage of some component every year I think. Otherwise they are not pushing the technology enough.

Why should there be a shortage in components every single year? Are you saying this is supposed to create some sort type of supply and demand?

You quoted "They are not pushing technology enough." Well technology can only be pushed so far until it's been ready and tested for the market. And you do realize that technology is usually tested 3–5 years prior to the actual product being released. You make it sound as if technology evolves overnight and should be ready for the market in less than a year.

Take the first generation Apple Watch for example, that was actually one of Steve Jobs last project he had his hands on. They actually started working on the Apple Watch back in 2011 prior to his death, when it actually released in April 2015. So with experimenting with heart rate sensors, fitness applications, and an OLED screen, likely took almost 5 years for the Apple Watch to be ready for the market. (And Apple
Is slower in releasing compared to competitors).

I think most don't truly understand, including myself, how far in advance technology is worked on until it's been ready for a public release. Engineering, implementation, design and functionality are all things to consider when looking at future products.

There's one thing for certain. Tech companies have to think about the future. They have to be a forward thinkers years from now. They have to be able to see where technology is going and the cycle of constantly evolving. I think that's with Steve Jobs did so well and some have said Apple has lost since his passing.
 
As OLED tvs go unsold the capacity for Apple has finally got there. Now there is no wiggle room with Apple in the market for OLED. I'm not the biggest OLED fan I quite like IPS as it's never pentile I think it looks better in some ways.

When you hear about issues like this you realise how difficult it must be to make a phone in such large volumes and that nothing is black and white.
 
Lol getting us ready for another iPhone 6 event

Make a new color only available in 256GB storage. Put in wireless fast charging like Samsung has only in top model and pull the lightning jack. Raise the price by $149 and ship it with Airpods in the box. Do not include any cables of any kind for any reason whatsoever. No wall plug either. You have to make up that $10 discount on the pods somehow. Make sure the Airpods are using BT5 and only compatible with the latest phone.

Make it a millimeter thinner by taking the volume controls off of it. Suggest that "Siri voice controls ought to be enough for anybody". Profit.

Make another youtube video with the Mexican Apple engineer talking about Tim Cook and the latest phone to bring the LULZ. That alone would be worth the price of admission. :)

They will have to redesign the phone just for the sake of design if they can't pull off the OLED screens. I really don't know realistically what else they could do. These machines cost around $85 million. Apple could have bought a couple of these things easily. Not sure if they would have been available two years ago when they would have had to order with the two year wait.

I am not being negative but it seems like the technology needs to leap forward a bit again. We are sort of stuck right now. Battery and display tech seem to be the two bottlenecks to a lot of products right now.
 
It wouldn't be an iPhone release unless there was a shortage on some component!

Apple's scale is huge.
How many times do we have to put up with this stuff?

I've been a Mac fanboy for years, and this feels like Apple of the early 1990's.

Tons of SKU's, inability to deliver, crappy hardware, buggy software, just such a shame.

I go to the Apple store and hope there's something I'd want to buy, but there's nothing.
Last time I got an overpriced watch band for my son. Felt really cheated.

Time before that was an Apple TV (the new one). It's really bad. So hard to use. Remote is not good at all.

Now I see Tim Cook is picking fights with the president elect. I can't stand him either but if I were the CEO of a big company I'll tell you what, I'd be hugging and smiling. Your employees depend on you. Your fanbase depends on you. Get over it. Build something. There's a time and a place for everything.

It might just be time to fire the Cook. I might have to bite the bullet and buy some Apple stock to put up a shareholder proposal at the next meeting. Just so frustrated.

Among the general nonsense, oone thing stands out in your post: Cook "picking fights" with Trump. Have you been living under a rock for the last two weeks?

Try to inform yourself at least a bit before posting.
 
$85 million a piece! Hot damn. For anyone suggesting Apple get into manufacturing, this is one of the reasons I think this idea is dumb. Manufacturing is cost intensive and ongoing considering the need to re-tool when introducing new tech. That's not including R&D and other stuff. It would eat profits like a lumberjack convention at a buffet.

$85 million? A piece? GTELHOH (get the ever loving hell outta here)

$85 million is chump change for Apple. not sure how many one of these can produce but Apple could buy 50 of them and it is no big deal.
 
Last edited:
I really don't get why big smartphone manufacturers aren't helping to fund eInk technologies so at least they can get a usable experience with faster refresh rates and longer battery life. Even colour eInk is available now in limited form. This race to produce more and more OLED/Micro-LED is crazy and unsustainable.

http://www.eink.com/press_releases/e_ink_announces_advanced_color_epaper_05-24-2016.html

I'd be very happy to have a phone with functions core to communication again and to last several days or even a whole week. We have tablets that can do all the smartphone stuff for a whole day (there's the space to put in more battery volume). So why justify a phone that has to do it all?

It'll take companies like Google/Apple to change the way we use phones again if we want longer battery life and not be consistently tied down to a charging port. Again tied down to battery/screen tech.
 
I love how the majority of MR posters will blame Apple for this, i.e. "There's an excuse for every single shortage..." Sucks to be Apple these days, well, except for the millions of products they continue to sell.
So, who is to blame if not Apple?
 
This is exactly what happened. Jony's ultimate iPhone is a featureless rounded slab, the elemental form, if you will. Apple chose to ship the iPhone 7 as a half-measure with some of the most controversial but necessary features of the 8, so that it would get all the bad press.

  • Eliminating the 3.5mm jack and beefing up wireless audio capabilities lets them remove one mechanism and hole.
  • Eliminating the mechanical home button with the fake one lets them remove another
  • iPhone 8 will eliminate the Lightning port. You will have wireless/magnetic inductive charging for power, W2/bluetooth for audio.
  • TouchID will be embedded directly into the glass face, which will cover the entire surface to the rounded edges on all sides.
  • They will eliminate the mechanical buttons for volume as well.
The end result is a smooth rounded glass object that feels great in the hand, and interfaces with the world wirelessly. It's the most ambitious redesign ever. Unfortunately Tim is a ****-up so it is going to end up having severe supply constraints as this article speculates, or serious quality issues from being rushed to market too soon.

I will be selling all of my stock before its announcement.

I won't be surprised if it is like that. Unless anybody has any better ideas.
 
Apple should have a special launch price at say $300 above the normal price for those who absolutely need to own these new iPhones on day one. Nothing wrong with Apple profiting from insane demand, and it's a price many of us would be willing to pay in order to guarantee an iPhone at launch. Once demand cools the price can go back down for the normals.

I think Samsung should have a special OLED price. Knowing Apple wants them but can't actually make OLEDs themselves, jack up the price by a few hundred percent. Therefore the price of the iPhone skyrockets and more people leave Apple in favour of Samsung.

It's win-win for them.
 
Glad I have my Pixel with Oled now and not having to wait on Apple. Got rid of a 6s. Couldn't be happier. Apple will really have to wow me to get me to come back.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.