According to news on August 2nd, according to Taiwan media DigiTimes, industry sources who produce back covers for iPhones said that they are expected to see iPhone using titanium alloy materials as early as 2023.
Titanium alloy has light weight, high strength, good corrosion resistance and high heat resistance. It is very suitable for aviation industry and is called “space metal”. Titanium is a rare metal, which is scattered in nature and difficult to extract, so the price is quite expensive. If the iPhone is adopted, it may only be applied to high-end models, or a special version may be launched. Xiao Lei predicts that the price of the iPhone with titanium alloy will also increase to a certain extent.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Apple has adopted titanium alloys. It has introduced the Apple Watch Series 6 with a titanium alloy case, with a leather loop strap, and the price is as high as 7099 yuan. The price of the regular version of Apple Watch Series 6 starts at 3199, and the price of the titanium alloy version is more than twice as expensive. However, the special version of Apple Watch usually has a high premium, which is more for design to pay, rather than simply indicating that the cost of titanium alloy has increased so much.
The industry predicts that if Apple wants to test the market acceptance of titanium alloy materials, it is likely to give priority to using this material on the iPad. The iPhone is the core of Apple’s ecology. Apple’s iterations of the iPhone are relatively conservative. New technologies and new materials are usually tested on other devices before they are updated to the iPhone. For example, the 120Hz screen on the iPad. This year’s iPhone 13 may also be equipped , Used with LTPO frame rate adaptive technology.
Titanium alloy material is more likely to be applied to the middle frame, and the back cover will continue to be made of glass. Due to the need to use coil wireless charging, glass has less influence on wireless charging. The iPhone is also equipped with MagSafe magnetic coils, and the glass back cover is a more suitable method. Therefore, the glass back cover will still be the mainstream in the next few years, and titanium alloy materials may only be used on the middle frame.
Xiao Lei still remembers that when he first got the iPhone X in the early years, the feeling of the stainless steel middle frame was heavy. After the titanium alloy frame is applied, the weight will be greatly reduced, and the mobile phone will not feel too heavy when worn in summer pants. This is a good material to enhance the user experience. If the manufacturing cost can be greatly reduced, titanium alloy material is likely to become the mainstream material for mobile phone frames.
