The rumor mill surrounding the iPhone 8 is churning this week, and not necessarily in a good way. Yesterday, we learned Apple may be leaving the 3D camera out of the next big iPhone to keep the phone on schedule. Today, rumors allege the 10th-anniversary edition of Apple’s smartphone may not ship with Touch ID embedded under its display.
AppleInsider reports receiving a notice sent out to investors by analyst Timothy Arcuri of Cowen and Company. In this notice, Arcuri describes production issues with the iPhone 8’s Touch ID integration.
For the 5.8-inch OLED version, the biggest bottleneck remains integrating an under-glass fingerprint sensor into the display—the current yield rate of Apple’s in-house AuthenTec solution remains low and AAPL seems unwilling to use other vendors’ products.
He goes on to explain that Apple has looked into other options, such as removing Touch ID altogether, placing Touch ID on the back casing like other OEMs do, or delaying the release of the device, but featuring it alongside the 7s and 7s Plus announcement in the fall.
The issue with these solutions is that none of them are, well, great. Arcuri says Apple removing Touch ID, which would cause users to rely on iris scanning or facial recognition, is unlikely. He also says placing the Touch ID button on the back of the phone is not user-friendly, as can be seen with the criticism of the location of Samsung’s fingerprint reader. And, of course, who wants to wait longer for a new iPhone?
Arcuri reportedly does not believe the 3D camera system is causing production delays, as recent rumors have purported. With so many conflicting rumors, it can be difficult to know what to believe. All you can really do is take everything with a grain of salt, and keep your eyes open for the next big rumor.
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