See the Amaizing Structure of the New IPhone 8 to be Released in 2018

  Philip Michaels

And you thought you'd catch hell for forgetting about your anniversary. Apple may be about to blow past the 10th anniversary of its first-ever iPhone without releasing a major overhaul to its iPhone lineup.

That's a possibility, according to a research note from Deutsche Bank that Business Insider got access to. The report, which says Apple might not release the iPhone 8 this calendar year, leans heavily on a story in ValueWalk about delays in Apple's supply chain.

Specifically, Apple appears to be facing component shortages that would support the features rumored for the iPhone 8, which include OLED displays that stretch from one end of the phone to the other. Apple is also reportedly going to adopt a glass-and-steel design for its upcoming phone.

According to ValueWalk, though, sources within Apple's supply chain have said that Apple has only ordering packing materials for incremental updates to the current iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models. That's enough for Deutsche Bank's analysts to conclude that the timing around the iPhone 8's release is uncertain and that it could slip into 2018.

This certainly isn't the first time we've heard about the next iPhone shipping later than usual. A number of analysts have suggested that component shortages could push the iPhone 8's debut into October or later while more modest updates to the current lineup would arrive in the usual September time frame in the form of the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus.

The most credible report thus far has come from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who suggested that Apple might not ramp up production on an iPhone 8 until October or November. The ValueWalk report cited by Deutsche Bank is the first one to really dangle the possibility that a substantially overhauled iPhone won't arrive until 2018. 

Apple certainly will face challenges in ramping up production on an overhauled iPhone, particularly if it has the augmented reality and improved display features touted by the rumor mill. But delaying completely until 2018 seems like an improbable scenario, given that iPhone sales make up about two-thirds of the company's revenue. The iPhone 7s and 7s Plus are likely to improve upon Apple's current lineup, potentially adding features like wireless charging. But it seems unlikely iPhone users would upgrade to those phones in great numbers, knowing an iPhone 8 release was just around the corner.

The Deutsche Bank report surfaced just before Apple announced fiscal second quarter earnings in which the company sold 50.8 million iPhones — a 1 percent dip from year's iPhone sales and below Wall Street estimates of 52 million iPhones. In an interview with CNBC, CEO Tim Cook said Apple was "seeing a kind of delay in purchasing behavior that we think is a consequence of the number of rumors and reports about future products."

Imagine the delay in purchasing behavior if there's no major iPhone overhaul in 2017.

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