Apple is testing more than 10 different prototypes of the iPhone 8

iPhone 7 conceptA drawing. Not what the iPhone 8 will look like.Yasser Farahi/Oval Picture

Apple is testing more than 10 prototypes for new iPhones that could go on sale next year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Citing sources, The Journal said some of those prototypes may have a new design centered on a curved screen.

The technology that would enable that curved screen is called OLED, a newer kind of display that has deeper blacks and lower power consumption.

The fact that Apple would need tens of millions of these OLED screens for next year is setting off a race among screen makers, including Samsung, LG Display, Foxconn-owned Sharp, and Japan Display.

The Journal said Samsung would supply "most" of Apple's initial OLED needs, confirming what Bloomberg reported earlier.

But Apple is pushing the other three to gear up to supply OLED iPhone screens as soon as 2018. That would require significant investment — The Journal said Sharp would need to spend more than $5 billion to develop the technology and capacity to supply OLED screens to Apple.

"We don't know whether Apple's OLED iPhones will be a hit, but if Apple doesn't walk down this path and transform itself, there will be no innovation," Sharp CEO Tai Jeng-wu said last month. "It is a crisis but it is also an opportunity."

A clear picture

The information in Monday's Journal story lines up with other reports from Nikkei as well as analyst reports from Barclays and KGI Securities.

As iPhone sales decline, pressure is mounting on Apple to deliver a very desirable new iPhone model in 2017 to return the line to growth.

This model is widely expected to feature glass casing, wireless charging, and a new edge-to-edge screen design, in addition to the latest chips and technologies.

"iPhone 8 design didn't sound 100% locked down but we believe the move is to a bezel-less design with screen sizes getting larger and curved edges in the original envelope," Barclays analysts wrote in November.

KGI Securities pointed to three iPhone models in 2017, with only one sporting the new kind of OLED screen. "We predict three new iPhone models will be launched in 2017: 5.1-5.2' OLED, 4.7' TFT-LCD, and 5.5' TFT-LCD," the KGI Securities analyst wrote.

The Journal warns that the OLED iPhone could be scrapped before its expected launch next fall. After all, Apple is testing 10 prototypes and reportedly killed an iPhone model months before launch in 2016. It sounds as if Apple's plans will depend on whether the company's suppliers can provide enough next-generation screens.

Breaking the Bounds of Boredom with iPhone

How many times have you been traveling somewhere and there is nothing to do but watch the scenery go by You have listened to your music over and over again,you have read your books, and you just want to watch a movie.

But when you are traveling in a car, it’s impossible.But that isn’t true anymore. If you have the Apple

iPhone, you can take your movies and television shows with you wherever you go.

The Apple iPhone has a generous 3.5-inch screen and it lets you enjoy anything that you have rented or purchased from the iTunes store right there on your iPhone, wherever you are.

The iPhone controls work very much like a DVD player remote - you can use them to play, pause, or even view certain chapters.

It’s also easy to adjust the volume on your iPhone so that you don’t disturb the people around you.

It’s hard to believe that Apple has packed so many features into one small device, but the company also knows what people are looking for in their cell phones.

They want to have plenty of options and they want their cell phone to give them a lot of technology

right there at their fingertips.

The iPhone not only is a great phone and camera, but it’s also a wonderful way to get rid of boredom. With the big selection of movies and television shows on iTunes, you will be able to find something that you want to watch no matter what your tastes are.

A Ton of Tunes on iPhone

No matter where you are going, you want to be able to take your music with you. It used to be that you would need to carry around a CD player with you.

When you add the time it takes to decide on what type of music that you want to take with you and the bulkiness of the CD player, it can get to be a real hassle.

But those days are gone, because with the Apple iPhone you have all of your favorite music right there at your fingertips.

The Apple iPhone makes finding your favorite music easy. With a touch of a single finger, you can quickly browse through your playlists, albums, artists, or songs.

If you can’t think of the album name but can picture it in your mind, Cover Flow makes it easy for you to find albums according to the artwork on the album cover.

Do you want to sing along with your favorite song but aren’t completely sure of the right lyrics If you

have added the songs with iTunes, you can have the lyrics displayed right there on the screen.

It’s almost like having a karaoke machine right there in front of you all the time.

Customers who have the Apple iPhone don’t have to worry about bringing a separate MP3 player with them,because all of the music they know and love is right there on their cell phone. It’s ready to play when

they are ready to listen to it.