Report claims Apple has ditched plans for an all-glass iPhone (but I don’t believe it)

Apple stock was downgraded by a major Wall Street firm on Monday, as an analyst predicted that a radical iPhone redesign has been scrapped, reports Barron’s. 

Jefferies analyst Edison Lee cut his rating on Apple to Underperform, the equivalent of a Sell rating, from Hold and slashed his price target on the shares to $263.66 from $285.56—one of the lowest on Wall Street. Apple stock fell 1.2% in premarket trading while futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose slightly.

So what “radical redesign” has been scrapped? Lee claims Apple has canned its plans for an all-glass iPhone. He says such a device was planned for 2027, but that development has stopped.

I think that Lee is wrong. And, according to most reports, such an iPhone was (is?) planned for late 2027, not early 2027, as a feature of the 20th anniversary iPhone. 

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has said the 20th anniversary smartphone will have a mostly glass, curved iPhone — without any cutouts in the display. And it’s likely to adopt a Samsung-made OLED technology called COE (Color Filter on Encapsulation) to make the display brighter and thinner than previous panels.

Internally codenamed “Glasswing,” the “iPhone 20” is expected to ditch traditional metal frames in favor of smooth glass edges that flow seamlessly into a quad-curved display.

Apparently Apple hopes to replicate Jony Ive’s long-term vision of the iPhone as a “single slab of glass”. The display is expected to curve on all four sides with nearly invisible bezels. 

Apple is reportedly planning to hide Face ID sensors and the selfie camera beneath the screen for a completely uninterrupted look. Some reports hint that Apple may drop physical volume and power buttons entirely, opting instead for solid-state buttons with haptic feedback.

I hope you’ll help support Apple World Today by becoming a patron. Almost all our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.