Apple already working on iPhone 8S

The churn  never stops

It seems that one of three Apple chip design teams is already pretty well advanced with a design for an iPhone 8S.

According to the CEO of semiconductor analyst firm Future Horizons, Malcolm Penn, Apple has as many as three design teams which it deploys internally rather than relying on external developers.

This, according to Penn, makes perfect sense because nowadays it is easy to just handpick a designer team and deploy them to design semiconductors for your company.

In a speech at a conference in London, Penn said that not only are more vendors very likely to do the same, it is all part of continuing consolidation in the semiconductor world.

While he believes that “Moore’s Law” continues to operate, quibbling over nanometer sizes is like children playing in a school playground and doesn’t really reflect the ality a particular generation of microprocessors offers.

“Intel is still ahead on FinFET at 12 nanometers ahead of the competition,” he said. “Samsung and TSMC are making great efforts to catch up with Intel but they depend on being fast followers.”

Penn forecasts plenty of more consolidation in the semiconductor industry over the next few years.