KGI: ‘Increasing likelihood’ iPhone 8 will feature glass front and back, stainless steel metal for premium models
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac :
Context & Ripple Effects
This September 2016 note is KGI firming up a call it first made six months earlier, when Ming-Chi Kuo reported Apple was planning a 2017 iPhone with a curved glass case, 5.8-inch AMOLED display, and wireless charging. The new detail is the material split: glass front and back paired with stainless steel frames reserved for premium models, while KGI had already flagged curved-glass edges as far back as its 4-inch iPhone report in late 2015.
The significance is that materials become the tier boundary. KGI's own numbers put the Samsung-made OLED at $120-$130 per unit versus $45-$55 for current LCDs, so a glass-and-steel chassis is the visible marker justifying a two-tier lineup where only the top model carries the expensive display.
First-order effects
- Apple's enclosure supply chain shifts toward stainless steel machining and glass lamination for the premium model, while the lower-end 6.1-inch iPhone Kuo describes keeps an aluminum frame at a $700-$800 price point.
- Samsung captures a display win worth more than double the incumbent LCD cost per unit, and KGI projects initial output of just 2M-4M units this quarter, signaling constrained early supply.
Second-order effects
- Glass backs re-enable wireless charging, pulling accessory makers into a new charging ecosystem, and KGI's storage forecast of 64GB/256GB across models pushes average selling prices upward.
- Rivals face a materials arms race: if Apple's premium tier pairs glass, stainless steel, and OLED, Android flagships must match the look or concede the high-margin segment.
Third-order effects
- The glass-centric premium design proves durable rather than one-cycle: a decade later sources still describe Apple on track for a glass-centric iPhone Pro overhaul in 2027, suggesting the material hierarchy became permanent structure.
- Removing the metal back also removes the natural home for Touch ID, consistent with KGI's later prediction that iPhones would abandon fingerprints entirely for Face ID — the chassis choice and the biometric shift are two halves of one redesign.
The trend: iPhone industrial design is consolidating around a glass-and-stainless premium tier whose materials gate the expensive features — OLED, wireless charging, facial sensing — that define each generation's upgrade cycle.