A new iPhone 8 (iPhone X) leak via Mac Otakara shows that the flagship phone from Apple will be the only 2017 iPhone model with integrated wireless charging.
According to the Japanese website – which has, so far, had a pretty reasonable success rate with its exclusive leaks – there will be no wireless charging capability included in either of the two other iPhone models expected this year, namely the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.
The site goes into detail about the charging standards used, but suffice it to say that the 10th anniversary iPhone will have wireless charging hard-baked into it. However, Apple may not include a wireless charger with the phone, since it will be compatible with the current chargers available for Android smartphones – specifically Samsung’s EP-NG 930.
An open standard for wireless charging has already being established by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), and is known as Qi. The latest version 1.2.2 currently allows resonant inductive coupling up to about 1.6 inches.
That’s just one of the cost elements going into iPhone 8 that could push its price over $1,000.
Another expensive piece of technology is the iris scanner, which will allow you to unlock your iPhone 8 and even authorize Apple Pay and other transactions with your eyes. Iris recognition technology is innately more expensive than many other forms of biometric recognition systems, and it is prone to more errors as well.
With so many additional features on iPhone 8, it’s bound to be more expensive than any current model – even the top-end variants of iPhone 7 Plus.
In closing, we do expect iPhone 8 to be close to $1,000 when it releases, but we don’t know whether that’s an “starting at” or “up to” price. Either way, a new iPhone 8 or iPhone X is definitely going to cost a whole lot more than the most expensive variant available on the market today.
The important underlying factor here is this: Apple knows how to haggle with suppliers, but even if it has to pay more for the components on the new iPhone, it is still going to maintain its high profit margins; and that’s the real reason these phones are going to set a new price record for iPhones.
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