Overview
- Jefferies analyst Edison Lee’s Saturday research note said Apple had canceled the all‑glass anniversary iPhone, and markets reacted with Apple shares falling roughly 2.8–3 percent.
- Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple did not scrap the anniversary redesign and that the Pro models codenamed V73 and V74 remain in advanced testing with the metal‑band compromise largely locked in.
- Engineers ran into problems joining large, quad‑curved glass panels and achieving reliable mass‑production yields, which is why Apple moved from a nearly all‑glass body to glass panels anchored by a central metal frame.
- The design change keeps the device glass‑forward while leaving production, pricing, and initial inventory at risk if yields do not improve during remaining tests.
- The 2027 redesign is described as a step toward Apple’s longer‑term “single slab of glass” goal rather than its completion, and near‑term releases such as the iPhone 18 Pro lineup and a foldable iPhone are set to ship before the anniversary models.