Apple Supplier Seemingly Confirms iPhone 15 Pro Solid-State Buttons Cancellation

[MacRumors]

In a shareholder letter today, Apple supplier Cirrus Logic seemingly confirmed that iPhone 15 Pro models will no longer feature solid-state buttons.

"That said, among the HPMS opportunities we have discussed, a new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as being scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to come to market as planned," the letter states. "As we have limited visibility into our customer's future plans for this product at this time, we are removing the revenue associated with this component from our internal model."

Cirrus Logic's high-performance, mixed-signal ("HPMS") segment includes haptic drivers for the Taptic Engine in iPhones. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models would have been equipped with two additional Taptic Engines that provided haptic feedback when the solid-state buttons were pressed, and Cirrus Logic hinted that it would have supplied related components for the devices in a previous shareholder letter.

"We continue to engage with a strategic customer and expect to bring a new HPMS component to market in smartphones next year," the supplier said last year.

Apple is Cirrus Logic's largest customer and accounted for 79% of its revenue in the 2022 fiscal year. In an investor note today, Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley said the supplier's comments today likely rule out solid-state buttons.

Last month, Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models would no longer have solid-state buttons as initially rumored due to "unresolved technical issues before mass production." He now expects the devices to have traditional buttons that move when pressed. Rumors suggest the Ring/Silent switch will still be be replaced with a button as previously claimed, and this button could be customizable like the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra.

Apple analyst Jeff Pu believes the solid-state buttons will likely be pushed back to iPhone 16 Pro models launching next year, but Cirrus Logic's comments today suggest it has limited knowledge of Apple's future plans at this time.

Article Link: Apple Supplier Seemingly Confirms iPhone 15 Pro Solid-State Buttons Cancellation

 

[ghanwani]

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.

 

[DeLaSoul]

Real buttons yeah! It should have a physical scroll wheel too, like the original iPod!!1

 

[hch720]

As long as I get an action button, I don't care whether or not the buttons are haptic.

 

[klasma]

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.

Alas, it's only "unresolved technical issues" that prevailed, according to Kuo, not opposition to solid state buttons as such.

 

[Realityck]

Diffidently the opinions went both ways when discussing an action button. For as much as some were excited, others were leave everything alone.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Leave the buttons alone. Bring this button's design back. Life was simple!

 

[zakarhino]

Guess I'm in the minority camp of people that wanted this.

I was hoping that this would enable a dual tier button press like on the Mac trackpad to support more media controls without having to use the screen (ironically a big win for glove users despite the multitude of opinions otherwise). Haptic volume buttons combined with an action button being customizable might have finally meant you can Play/Pause, Volume Up/Down, Forward/Backward track (hard press volume buttons) all without interacting with the screen -- a dream come true!!! It would have been like using an old school tape player or something.

It would also enable a legitimate two stage camera trigger! Here's hoping for next year I guess.

 

[JPack]

As expected, Kuo was right and our rumor guy in the forum was wrong. Supply chain always wins these battles.

 

[MuppetGate]

As expected, Kuo was right and our rumor guy in the forum was wrong. Supply chain always wins these battles.

Mmmm. Not so sure.

I mean, aside from the problem of finding room in the phone for an extra Taptic Engine, we also now have a phone that won’t work while you’re wearing gloves. If this phone was ever on the drawing board, it was swept into the bin pretty quickly.

 

[User 6502]

Guess I'm in the minority camp of people that wanted this.

I was hoping that this would enable a dual tier button press like on the Mac trackpad to support more media controls without having to use the screen (ironically a big win for glove users despite the multitude of opinions otherwise).

a solid state capacitive button like the home button on the iPhone 8 and similar won’t work at all if you are wearing gloves. It doesn’t matter how hard you press it, it just won’t be triggered. How can it possibly be ‘a win’ for gloves users?

 

[User 6502]

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.

I suspect they’ll try again next year. My main concern is however the mute switch that apparently won’t be a switch anymore. This is a terrible downgrade and will have lost one of the differentiating features making it better than the average android phone.

 

[wanha]

As expected, Kuo was right and our rumor guy in the forum was wrong. Supply chain always wins these battles.

Always?

Kuo is often wrong.

 

[wanha]

Well that was a riveting series of articles on the solid state buttons.

Can't wait for round 2 sometime next year 😆

 

[JPack]

Mmmm. Not so sure.

I mean, aside from the problem of finding room in the phone for an extra Taptic Engine, we also now have a phone that won’t work while you’re wearing gloves. If this phone was ever on the drawing board, it was swept into the bin pretty quickly.

If you're wearing gloves, the touchscreen won't work anyway. Nothing against haptic buttons, but it feels like a solution in search of a problem. However, replacing the mute switch doesn't seem like a good idea.

 

[bLackjackj]

Don't believe everything you read! It was just reported this week on 9-5 that it is going ahead. On again, off again, on again, off again.

I think we've now all covered both sides of the fence, so that no website or leak is going to be wrong.. 🙄🤦‍♂️

 

[JPack]

Always?

Kuo is often wrong.

For low volume products like Mac? Sometimes. For upcoming iPhones? Almost never. Last year's big debate was whether iPhone 14 would use A15. We know the result of that one. The only big miss was in 2021 where the satellite feature ended up being delayed.

 

[wanha]

For low volume products like Mac? Sometimes. For upcoming iPhones? Almost never. Last year's big debate was whether iPhone 14 would use A15. We know the result of that one. The only big miss was in 2021 where the satellite feature ended up being delayed.

Supply chain "analysts" are very often right about what is coming or being worked on, but often wrong about when it is coming out.

I put "analyst" in quotes, because he's really just passing on information stolen from the supply chain. His gift is his network of relationships and access to classified information, not the quality of his analysis.

 

[JPack]

Don't believe everything you read! It was just reported this week on 9-5 that it is going ahead. On again, off again, on again, off again.

I think we've now all covered both sides of the fence, so that no website or leak is going to be wrong.. 🙄🤦‍♂️

Nearly 90% of Cirrus Logic's revenue comes from Apple. There's a reason why this shareholder letter was dedicated to this topic. You don't need to be a genius to figure out 9to5 is wrong.

 

[Kottu]

If you want to keep secrets until the last moment, you need control over everything and everyone. Loyalty of the employee is very important. Steve Jobs succeeded many times. When Apple became too big, it's difficult to stop leaks. It could be that they leak them on purpose to hide the big surprise. Unfortunately we haven't seen any surprises for the past 10 years.

 

[tennisproha]

Apple is Cirrus Logic's largest customer and accounted for 79% of its revenue in the 2022 fiscal year.

It’s crazy how this entire companys’ existence is riding on the coat tails of apple.

do they not have a board that thinks maybe they should diversify just in case apple stops floating them and jumps ship to another supplier?

 

[mr.datsun]

All these continual Apple product rumours are now becoming a joke. Very misleading.
Q. Will they, wont they?
A. We just don't know.

 

[wanha]

All these continual Apple product rumours are now becoming a joke. Very misleading.
Q. Will they, wont they?
A. We just don't know.

True, but man do they drive clicks

 

[contacos]

What does that tell us if a trillion dollar company is not able to easily change something like a simple volume button on a phone?

What I personally wouldn’t mind is a different position of the button and maybe make it a single button like any cheap Samsung phone

 

[redbeard331]

All this hullabaloo about the buttons is driving us up the wall, we had hoped to see Taptics on all sides of the iPhone to make it come alive!