The upcoming Apple 8 iPhone will have an "operating area" at the bottom of its OLED screen from edge to edge, replacing the current iPhone's home button with Touch ID, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo, who has predicted several Apple product features in the past, presented the "function area" in detail as he mentions it on the bottom of the phone in a slide. The 5,8-inch iPhone is said to have a 5.15-inch OLED screen without a bezel.
The most obvious change iPhone OLED will be a full-screen design, along with the removal of the Home button that features the current fingerprint recognition technology. We expect the OLED iPhone to come with a 5.8" native OLED panel, but the actual screen size will be around 5.15". The rest will be a space for functions (e.g. allocation of virtual keys).
The "function area" sounds a lot like the Touch Bar on Apple's new MacBook Pro. The Touch Bar displays your applications and presents various function keys for greater productivity. Kuo also said that this area will be for the distribution of virtual keys, but did not give further details.
To mention that analyst Rod Hall JPMorgan (who isn't nearly as reliable as Kuo) reported that Apple will remove the TouchID Home button and replace it with a 3D laser scanner for facial recognition.
The rumors will of course keep coming until the official unveiling of the iPhone 8, which is said to feature wireless charging and an all-glass body. Rumors also indicate a dramatic increase in her capacity battery.