The last few weeks have seen a deluge of Samsung Galaxy S8 rumors, but now it's time for some speculation about Apple's upcoming handsets. A pair of purported manufacturing documents from the company's East Asia supply chain seemingly confirm that we'll see three iPhones released next year.
A Sina Weibo user posted the documents, which were noticed by Apple Insider. They appear to add weight to earlier rumors that Apple is readying three iPhones for a 2017 release. The models are referred to as D20, D21, and D22.
The first two models are thought to be iterative updates of the iPhone 7; they'll most likely stick with tradition and be named the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus. Chinese blog cnBeta reports that this year's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were known internally as D10 and, strangely, D20.
But the most interesting model is the one designated D22. This will reportedly be the high-end iPhone 8, which goes by the other internal codename of 'Ferrari.' The handset is said to come in a similar form factor as the current iPhone models, but features an almost edge-to-edge AMOLED display, embedded home button, wireless charging, and more.
The inside of Ferrari is expected to have undergone a major overhaul. The logic board will be split into two separate units that are connected by a flex cable. One section will hold the phone's main operating components such as the A11 SoC and flash storage, while the other board will contain communication parts for Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity.
Additionally, the documents say Apple is considering moving the SIM card tray to the bottom of the handset to make room for the internal hardware.
Apple faced criticism over how similar the iPhone 7 is to its predecessor. With next year marking the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone, the company will no doubt want Ferrari to be something special.