Apple eyes next-gen "over-the-air" smartphone charging
Fortune reports today that device battery charging time may no longer be an issue, as Apple investigates replacing charging cords altogether with over-the-air-charging capabilities. Late last week, “reliable” Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, shared a prediction with 9to5Mac that next year’s iPhone's charging will be completely wireless. According to Kuo, Apple may well use a technique known as “near-field magnetic resonance” which require a phone to be positioned close to a power source (such as a computer) to power wirelessly.
Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI Securities has today issued a new note in which he says that Apple will entirely revamp its iPhone lineup come 2017. According to Kuo, Apple in 2017 will release a new iPhone with glass casing and an AMOLED display. This somewhat contradicts an earlier note from the analyst that said Apple was aiming for an AMOLED iPhone by 2018.

More specifically, Kuo believes that Apple will decide between glass, plastic, and ceramic casing for its 2017 iPhone, but that the company will ultimately settle on glass, much like the iPhone 4, “as plastic doesn’t offer thin and light form factor designs, and it would be not easy to precisely control the tolerance of ceramic.”

Additionally, Kuo reports that Apple’s 2017 iPhone will adopt a curved display with curved glass body. Again building on the iPhone 4 design, the device will feature a glass front and back with metal sides. Kuo also says the phone will feature a “completely new form factor design” with more narrow bezels and a “more comfortably grip.”

As rumored in the past, KGI also believes that Apple will introduce a new 5.8-inch iPhone in 2017 with an AMOLED display. Despite the larger display, however, the device will feature a form factor that is ultimately smaller than the current 5.5-inch iPhone. If Apple is able to produce enough of the 5.8-inch AMOLED displays, the larger device will entirely replace the 5.5-inch model, meaning that Apple will offer 4.7-inch and 5.8-inch iPhones in 2017.

Furthermore, Apple’s 2017 iPhone will include wireless charging according to the report, though specifics remain unclear. An earlier report claimed that Apple was working a long-range wireless charging technology, though today’s KGI note makes no mention of that. Additionally, the device will feature additional biometric recognitions, perhaps facial recognition or eye recognition.

More and more it’s looking as if Apple will entirely revamp its iPhone lineup in 2017, while the iPhone introduced later this year will be largely similar to the current model, though thinner and without a headphone port. What do you think of Apple saving its big iPhone refresh for 2017? Let us know in the comments.