APPLE WILL RELEASE three new iPhones next year and all of them will come with a ruddy 'notch', according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
The iPhone X arrived on shelves less than two week's ago, but that hasn't stopped Kuo looking into his crystal ball and spouting some predictions about next year's iPhone lineup.
He expects Apple to release three iPhones in 2018, including 5.8in and 6.5in models with OLED displays and a cheaper 6.1in handset with an LCD display, according to a research note seen by MacRumours.
"Two new OLED models target high-end market; new TFT-LCD model aims at low-end & midrange markets," Kuo said.
"The new TFT-LCD model will differ significantly from the OLED models in hardware and design specs (for instance, the PPI will be lower). The primary selling points of the TFT-LCD model may be the innovative user experience of an integrated full-screen design and 3D sensing with a lower price tag (we expect it will likely be US$649-749)."
Kuo goes on to say that all three models will likely come equipped with a full-screen notched design and TrueDepth camera system like that seen on the iPhone X, with all three handsets tipped to dump Touch ID in favour of Apple's new, crackable Face ID system.
Earlier rumours also claimed that next year's iPhone(s) could ship without modem chips from Qualcomm, with Apple said to be testing modem chips from Intel and MediaTek to potentially include in its 2018 hardware line-up. There's also talk of the so-called iPhone 11 packing a Samsung-built A12 chip.
Kuo also suggested that Apple will have a lot more of the 'new' iPhones available at launch when compared to the 80 million iPhone units shipped in the second half of this year.
While Kuo predicts the cheaper LCD model to fetch around $700, there's no word yet as to how much Apple's next-gen OLED models are likely to cost.
We're going to go out on a whim and predict that the new iPhones will probably be announced in September next year.