A new report about Apple iPhone 7 surfaced on Friday, saying that the Cupertino-based company has placed an order with touchscreen supplier Synaptics for the phone's LCD display driver. It was said that the leaked order indicates that Synaptic's schedule for the phone's touch and display driver was a bit behind, a report from iDigital Times said.
According to the site, the news comes after sources who requested anonymity for the report published in Digitimes revealed the new development about Apple's next-generation smartphone.
"The development of Apple's in-house developed TDDI solutions, has fallen behind schedule, as the smartphone vendor has released orders for its 2016 models to Synaptics," Digitimes sources said. "Apple is already engaged in the development of TDDI solutions after hiring senior engineers from Renesas, previous reports quoted industry sources as saying. Instead of looking for second-source suppliers, Apple is internally developing TDDI chips for its iPhones."
"Apple has been trying to develop its own chip that would integrate both the touch and LCD display drivers in a single entity for the iPhone 7. The fact that Apple placed this order with Synaptics means Apple does not feel like they will be able to finish the single chip's development in time for the iPhone 7's release," the report said.
Back in September 2014, Synaptics had acquired the Renesas SP Drivers. It was said that Renesas SP Drivers were the sole supplier of LCD integrated chips for Apple's iPhones. If the rumor is true, Apple remains to be Synaptics' customers. Aside from Apple, the company supplies other multinational tech companies such as Google, HTC, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and other mobile makers.
"Apple previously recruited senior Renesas engineers to internally develop TDDI chips with Touch ID integrated into the display. The single-chip solution could allow for the Home button to be eliminated on future iOS devices, but Apple ordering regular display drivers from Synaptics indicates the technology may not be ready for the iPhone 7," Macrumors reported.
