Apple still plans a glass-centric iPhone overhaul for the device's 20th anniversary in 2027, countering a Jefferies note that declared the design dead.
Key Points:
- Two iPhone Pro models code-named V73 and V74 are in testing, with glass on the front and back curving into a metal band.
- Jefferies cut Apple to underperform and lowered its price target to $263.66 from $285.56 after supply chain checks.
- Apple shares closed down 1.53% at $308.26 on Monday, and the iPhone still supplies about half of company revenue.
Glass iPhone Design Holds For 2027
Mark Gurman reported that people familiar with the confidential work described two Pro models already in testing, known internally as V73 and V74. Glass covers the front and back of each phone, curves into the sides and meets a metal band running through the middle. Apple's product road map behind those devices has not changed, according to one of the people briefed on the plans.
Apple's design studio had championed a more aspirational version that leaned on glass rather than metal, but the company scrapped that approach early after running into trouble joining the panels. The design did not survive the question of how to build it in volume.
A phone made entirely of glass remains out of reach with current manufacturing, and the version now in testing stops well short of that ambition. New iPhone designs typically lock in about a year before the fall launch. That schedule leaves the 2027 lineup in advanced testing and mostly settled, short of any late hitches.
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Edison Lee Downgrade Divides Apple Analysts
Edison Lee at Jefferies told clients Monday that supply chain checks indicated the all-glass iPhone had been canceled because of low production yields, calling the outcome a major setback. He downgraded the stock to underperform from hold, cut his price target to $263.66 from $285.56 and trimmed earnings estimates for fiscal 2028 and 2029.
Lee had expected the glass treatment to spread across the Pro and Pro Max line and lift average selling prices at a time when memory costs are climbing across the industry. Gene Munster took the opposite view, calling September-quarter revenue guidance of 9% to 11% growth better than investors first read it. Apple shares closed down 1.53% at $308.26.
Apple Pipeline Awaits John Ternus
The argument matters because the iPhone supplies roughly half of Apple's revenue, and sales climbed 22% last quarter.
John Ternus takes over as chief executive on Sept. 1, inheriting a product pipeline that runs from smart glasses to camera-equipped AirPods and new home devices.
Talk of a seamless glass iPhone is not new, and reports of an anniversary redesign have circulated since at least 2025, when the company was said to be chasing a display without cutouts.
Apple filed a patent application for a six-sided glass enclosure back in 2019, long before this week's dispute. Analysts have argued about the timing ever since.
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