With billionaires offloading their stock and analysts predicting the worst, Apple needs to do something pretty special with its iPhone 7.
Just don't expect that game-changing new feature to arrive in the form of a bigger, more reliable battery.
Chinese website Weibo claims to have obtained pictures from the factory floor creating the next generation of cells for use in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
The codes on these black slabs indicate that the iPhone 7 and Plus models will contain a 1735 mAh and 2810 mAh capacity battery respectively.
To put that into perspective, the iPhone 6S contains a 1715mAh battery, while the iPhone 6S Plus holds a 2750mAh battery. Both were smaller than the previous generation (the iPhone 6 squeezed in 1810mAh and iPhone 6 Plus 2915mAh), but their internal components claimed to put less strain on their batteries.
This doesn't mean that the iPhone 7 will have a shorter battery life than the current handsets: it's all down to how the new phone and its A10 chipset (basically its brain) uses the battery.
If photos prove to be real, it suggests that the iPhone 7 won't be bragging about unparalleled battery performance: it'll be a small, incremental step forward. Another handset that's "a little bit better" than the iPhone 6S. Which, in an increasingly competitive market, might not be enough to see Apple reverse its current form.
Here's hoping the camera is a bit better, eh? One that doesn't drain the marginally improved battery...
