IHS Markit White Paper Predicts 2017 Curved-Bezel iPhone With Flexible OLED

IHS Markit thinks the iPhone 7S Pro due in 2017 will be Apple’s first model to use an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) panel, it said in a Monday white paper. IHS thinks Apple will use AMOLED’s flexibility to “achieve a bezel-less design” on the iPhone 7S Pro, it said. “The screen would remain flat, but the edge would be curved and sandwiched with the bezel, similar to the Apple Watch.” With a curved-bezel model, the iPhone 7S Pro would have a “slim and agile design” with rounded corners, it said. Apple representatives didn’t comment. An Apple patent (US 9,256,250) published in February at the Patent and Trademark Office described methods of fashioning flexible OLEDs with “fastened bent edges” as a means of minimizing the “inactive border area” around the display (see 1602100054).