Apple iPhone 8 to have stainless steel with all-body glass design

Citing Taiwanese sources, a report from DigiTimes claims that Apple has bypassed usual supplier Foxconn and placed orders for forged stainless steel iPhone casings from manufacturing partner Jabil.

Citing Taiwanese sources, a report from DigiTimes claims that Apple has bypassed usual supplier Foxconn and placed orders for forged stainless steel iPhone casings from manufacturing partner Jabil.

Apple iPhone 8 may after all get a all glass body design but it may not use the regular aluminium alloy that is seen on most of its recent variants.

Citing Taiwanese sources, a report from DigiTimes claims that Apple has bypassed usual supplier Foxconn and placed orders for forged stainless steel iPhone casings from manufacturing partner Jabil.

The iPhone-maker had last relied on stainless steel instead of aluminium on the iPhone 4S but had to switch to aluminium due to quality issues.

Read: Apple to come out with iPhone 7S in red colour before iPhone 8

After the iPhone 6 "bend-gate" fiasco in 2014, which claimed the handset could be easily deformed, Apple switched to 7000-series aluminum first applied in the original Apple Watch.

While Apple is rumored to return to steel with the "iPhone 8" chassis, the fabrication process will be notably different from that of iPhone 4 and 4s. In particular, the company is said to be using a metal forging method instead of common billet milling.

Read: Apple's 10th anniversary iPhone 8 may come with bezel-less OLED display

Japanese blog Mac Otakara has also hinted about the same move. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had first revealed Apple's plans for a glass-backed iPhone last April, since expanding the prediction to include exotic technologies like an OLED display, wireless charging, an invisible home button and more.

Read: As Apple's iPhone turns 10 today, Cook says just getting started

Earlier, Otakara had hinted towards the launch of a third variant of the iPhone 7 family in red - 7S. Mac Otakara has a strong track record when it comes to iPhone predictions. The Japanese blog was first to report on iPhone 7's 3.5mm headphone jack deletion, as well as this year's Jet Black colour option.