Refresh Cycle Of iPhone To Be Extended To Three Years

A report from Nikkei newspaper indicated that Apple is planning to implement evolutionary changes instead of revolutionary changes to the iPhone this year as it modified its major refresh cycle to three years.

The newspaper indicated that the change in the refresh cycle may likely be implemented by Apple. The reason behind the change is the current cycle did not offer much room for any major developments in the hardware of the smartphone in terms of offering new technology into the market. The benefits of upgrading annually are getting smaller since chips and software are getting faster and better.

The iPhone model this year will closely resemble the iPhone 6 and will only have some minor changes, like a better camera, better battery and water resistance, according to Nikkei. The report also indicated that the headphone jack may also be removed.

Refresh Cycle Of iPhone To Be Extended To Three Years - image credit: apple.com

On the other hand, the 2017 model of the smartphone from Apple may have bigger changes, including an organic LED display. OLED screens offer crisper, brighter and deeper colors compared to existing LCD screens. They also allow battery to become extended since a backlight will no longer be necessary.

While the source of the information for the report was not revealed by the newspaper, it may have been sourced from a number of companies based in China, Japan and Taiwan that supply majority of the components for the smartphone from Apple.

The production schedules of the components gave an indication that the company is not expecting the sales of the iPhone for 2016 to surpass the level of sales in 2015.

Despite the decline in sales, the company remains profitable. But, the core iPhone business of the company gave indications of slow growth recently. The company reported in April that it experienced a quarterly drop in year-on-year sales of the iPhone for the first time since the smartphone entered the market in 2007.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday June 01 2016, 12:10 PM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Technology. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0