An Apple Israel employee has allegedly confirmed to Business Insider that the company's next flagship phone would be marketed as 'iPhone 8' and not 'iPhone 7s'. Featuring a radically revamped design and enhanced camera, the next iPhone is said to greatly differ from the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 7.
The report also confirms that the iPhone 8 will sport an edge-to-edge display powered by OLED technology and implement an all-glass enclosure instead of the aluminium casing seen on existing flagship phones. Additionally, the upcoming flagship iPhone is likely to drop the top and bottom bezels to pave the way for a smaller 5.5in handset than the existing iPhone Plus models.
The Home button with the Touch ID sensor and the front-facing camera are expected to be pushed behind the screen and this would enable Apple to reduce the overall-enclosure size of the handset.
Here are some excerpts from the report via Business Insider:
The employee was informed at the start of the conversation that they were talking to a journalist. When asked what Apple uses the Herzliya facility for, the source (who only spoke in broken English), said: "New products." They added that Apple doesn't actually assemble products in Israel.
A second Apple employee that Business Insider spoke to in Herzliya said they "couldn't talk" about what Apple does in Herzliya, while an employee from networking giant Cisco, which also has an office in the area, said: "I have three friends that work there. They work on the hardware side. Verifications. Something like that.
Furthermore, sources close to Apple have confirmed that the company uses the R&D facility in Herzliya to manufacture iPhone hardware such as chips, storage cameras and wireless technologies. There is a second manufacturing facility at Haifa in Israel which is home to around 200 employees.
Apple's Herzliya office accommodates over 800 employees with its recent acquisitions including flash memory designer Anobit and 3D Sensor developer - PrimeSense. The company has also acquired the Israeli imaging firm LinX, which is expected to develop and supply components for iSight Duo camera on the iPhone 7 Plus.
