New Analyst Report Details Reason for the Reported 'iPhone 8' Price Tag
With less than a week before the “iPhone 8” is expected to be unveiled, a new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chu Kuo (via 9to5Mac) is detailing some reasons for the “iPhone 8” price tag.
In the note, Kuo says Apple is paying more for the handset’s OLED screen because of a familiar name:
The analysis breaks down the structure of the new iPhone’s display which KGI expects to include a flexible OLED panel, an OLED touch panel, a 3D Touch module, and an OLED panel module. The report believes Samsung will be responsible for providing each OLED part with the only exception in the stack being the 3D Touch module.
For that reason, Samsung is able to charge a premium on OLED panels which KGI expects will cost more than twice as much per unit as the LCD panels in the Plus model iPhones. Specifically, KGI estimates OLED unit cost at $120-$130 per unit versus the $45-$55 unit cost of LCD panels.
The new iPhone will reportedly start at $999.
Ironically, the 3D Touch module is possibly the reason that the new iPhone won’t have Touch ID:
While Apple was originally aiming to embed Touch ID under the display according to reports, KGI believes that OLED creates an unfavorable scan-through performance for the fingerprint sensor.
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