McDonald's uses 'iPhone 8' render to promote Australian iPhone app

McDonald's Australia is using a render of Apple's upcoming "iPhone 8" in an email promoting the company's "mymacca's" iPhone app, various social media posts noted on Thursday.

The email, guiding customers through a discount on online orders, depicts the "iPhone 8" with a widely-accepted edge-to-edge OLED display, interrupted only by a sensor "notch" at the top. Unlike some concept renders, the McDonald's art includes white status bars in the display's "ears" — Apple is typically expected to make these black to blend them in.

Well-known leak source Benjamin Geskin claimed that McDonald's used an uncredited render of his as the basis for its graphics, though other similar renders have been produced.

It's unknown at this stage whether the McDonald's marketing team deliberately used the "iPhone 8" to draw attention, or simply to appear on the cutting edge.

The layout of the phone is at this point largely uncontroversial, since Apple itself included an image in early HomePod firmware. Rumors have instead swirled about whether or not facial recognition will completely replace Touch ID — given no obvious signs of a fingerprint sensor — and other potential features, such as a rear laser for autofocus and augmented reality. It's also uncertain when the product might ship, even if it will probably be announced in September.