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It looks like Apple is going to make a serious change in the way cell phones are put together. Apple has to stay at least a step ahead to maintain their leadership and this like a major step. It would also be interesting if they put Crossbar memory in their new phone. This combined with other new technologies would give Apple the edge they must maintain at all costs to keep their lead. Motorola, Nokia, Blackberry and others show the penalties for becoming just another commodity product, a fate which so far Apple has avoided. The question is what supplier will provide this. Could this be an AMAT/TSM project?
As for OLED displays Apple is way behind Samsung who has been offering AMOLED displays for years now.
Apple has the best marketing department in the world, so their brand loyalty is quite high, but on the technology front they have been playing catch up on:
Samsung Galaxy S6, S7 [Edge] have all glass (Gorilla glass that is) design (well, it's not exactly just glass - the sides are metal - but iPhone won't be just glass either)
Dan, there are new glass and glass like materials that have tremendous strength and Apple has the resources and mind set to develop them. Notice it said no aluminum would be involved. Maybe the very frame will be glass as well. Note the link. Apple could be coming up with a real game changer that they desperately need and they have the money and resources to do so.
The materials world is moving as fast as the semi/sensor/mems world. Combine all these and they feed on each other and present almost unlimited opportunities. Our horizons are now expanding at a geometrically increasing rate and what can be done with a hand held device has few limits. Communities like SemiWiki only accelerate this progress by sharing a large and expanding skill set of the members. This is all part of the Silicon Valley culture that has become an integral part of the "Great Acceleration" that is starting to dominate everything. It's possible a phone could end up being a single solid package, just how some chips are packaged that would give us even more options in hand held devices. Any company with the resources of Apple could have some real surprises in store or succumb to one that substitutes imagination for money.
