Force Touch Could Be Exclusive to 'iPhone 6s Plus'

[cambookpro]

Let's have a look at Economic Daily News' track record...

Here are some of the rumours sourced from them:

One 1.6" iWatch and two 1.8" iWatch models

5.5" iPhone to have sapphire screen

4.7" iPhone in August 2014; 5.5" in September

5.6" experimental device to be launched without iPhone branding

iTV for 2014 launch

No retina iPad mini until 2014

 

[HenryDJP]

Samsung does it. Galaxy S is their flagship phone and the Note flagship phablet. Apple looks at the 6 and 6+ as a single flagship, that you can get in two sizes. Same with the new watch.

I don't think so. If it was just about size then yes, Apple would be considering both the phones as flagships, but the 6 is missing many key features that only the 6Plus has such as the 1080p screen, OIS, longer batter life, landscape view of the home screen which also enhances the way Mail is viewed as well as Messaging. The 6Plus is the only flagship Apple phone.

 

[djgamble]

IMO the divide is unfair because the 'plus' model isn't THAT much more expensive and many people don't want the massive screen as a matter of choice.

 

[rdlink]

I've never heard of a company with (2) flagship devices. I always thought the Flagship was the top of the line with all the bells and whistles and that's generally one product.

Umm, ever heard of a 27" iMac and a 15" rMBP?

Just because someone doesn't need or want a phablet screen does not mean that they don't need or want the rest of the tech. The iPhone 6 and 6+ are dual flagship phones. OIS is included on the 6+ because it can fit. Nothing more than that. Mark my words, there will be OIS on the 6S.

 

[freediverx]

With Force Touch being included in the Apple Watch - given its strict size, battery, and cost constraints - Apple has no excuse for omitting it from any iPhone. One can guess at possible technical challenges at sizes larger than a trackpad, but there would be no reasonable excuse for limiting this feature to a larger size iphone, unless Apple used it as a blatant tactic to push the most expensive (and less popular) "Plus" models. Plus this isn't just a feature - it's a revolutionary new user interface paradigm that Apple will eventually want to extend across its entire product line.

Optical image stabilization was exclusive to the Plus model ostensibly due to space and battery requirements. There would be no such excuse for Force Touch given they were able to squeeze it into the Watch.

 

[frankly]

Perhaps the 6s simply doesn't have enough room.

I really hope this isn't true, it already annoys me that I don't have optical image stabilization. I tried the iPhone 6+ for a couple weeks... it was just too big.

make that iphone 6 plus a lot compact and i will buy it for force touch...but as it is, too big for me

That's why I think it won't happen. They won't put it on the phone until both of the flagship devices can have it.

I'm already annoyed that I can't get the best internal tech with a 4" screen...

Unlikely. Force touch will became a standard interface so they won't hold back on one.

This will be it for the updates though. Camera, CPU/memory and force touch.

It's disheartening to see a lack of feature parity between device sizes considering that size preference and feature preference are mutually exclusive choices.

times one thousand.....

We are supposed to believe that they can make it work on a 1.5" screen, a 5" trackpad, a 5.5" screen, but not a 4.7" screen?? Lol, why not??
Oh yeah... because a random worker at a supplier in China didn't happen to mention it. Seems legit. =P
It couldn't be that their company wasn't the one to get that contract or anything...

Never understood why bigger models should have better tech (unless it's something hear related like dedicated graphics on a 15" mbp). Some of us want the top of the line without the super-sizing. Hell, a 4" model with high end tech would be my choice, but at the very least keep the 4.7 on par with the 5.5

I love how almost no one is forgetting how much space this technology takes up inside of the device. Have you seen how big the Taptic Engine is when covering a surface that large? Perhaps they are not able to fit it into the 6s.

For those of you pointing out the the Watch has it, the Watch is 10.5 mm thick. The 6 and 6 plus are not that thick. The 6 plus is slightly thicker than the 6 and it also has the added length and width. These currently allow it to have optical image stabilization and longer battery life. This means that it has extra room while the 6 does not.

 

[HenryDJP]

Umm, ever heard of a 27" iMac and a 15" rMBP?

SERIOUSLY??? I was referring to at least the same product category. Come on.

Just because someone doesn't need or want a phablet screen does not mean that they don't need or want the rest of the tech. The iPhone 6 and 6+ are dual flagship phones. OIS is included on the 6+ because it can fit. Nothing more than that. Mark my words, there will be OIS on the 6S.

Mark your words when OIS wasn't implemented on the small 6? Ok.

 

[TWSS37]

And this site is named MacRumors for a reason.

It's AnchorMAN not AnchorLADY

 

[KPOM]

I don't think so. If it was just about size then yes, Apple would be considering both the phones as flagships, but the 6 is missing many key features that only the 6Plus has such as the 1080p screen, OIS, longer batter life, landscape view of the home screen which also enhances the way Mail is viewed as well as Messaging. The 6Plus is the only flagship Apple phone.

Longer battery life is solely a function of size. The other features aren't practical on the smaller screen. The distinction between the 6 and 6 Plus isn't as great as that between the Galaxy S6 and the Note lines. The Note has stylus support, for instance.

That said, I'd now consider the S6 Edge as Samsung's new "flagship."

----------

I love how almost no one is forgetting how much space this technology takes up inside of the device. Have you seen how big the Taptic Engine is when covering a surface that large? Perhaps they are not able to fit it into the 6s.

For those of you pointing out the the Watch has it, the Watch is 10.5 mm thick. The 6 and 6 plus are not that thick. The 6 plus is slightly thicker than the 6 and it also has the added length and width. These currently allow it to have optical image stabilization and longer battery life. This means that it has extra room while the 6 does not.

Good point. Apple could make the phone thicker, but that goes against all their design trends.

 

[HenryDJP]

Longer battery life is solely a function of size. The other features aren't practical on the smaller screen. The distinction between the 6 and 6 Plus isn't as great as that between the Galaxy S6 and the Note lines. The Note has stylus support, for instance.

That said, I'd now consider the S6 Edge as Samsung's new "flagship."

Comparing Samsung's phones to Apple's in terms of what's considered "Flagship" is pointless. Two different manufactures and overall they are different products.

So how is OIS not practical on the smaller 6 screen? How is landscape mode not practical on the smaller 6 screen? How is the high-resolution screen on the 6plus's 5.5" screen not practical the smaller 6's screen that's basically only an inch smaller?
You're making excuses. Apple intended for only one of their phones to be considered the flagship and that's the 6 Plus.

How long have you been an Apple customer? I've been on Mac for over 16 years and this is how they've always done it.
Remember the 12" and 17" Powerbooks? Yeah, they called the 12" a "Powerbook" but the 17" had the backlit keyboard, gaming graphics card, built-in wifi card (which had to purchased separately on the 12"), a Superdrive which was also only optional on the 12" Powerbook and it had the low resolution screen which was also washed out.

The 12" Power was a glorified iBook. While I wouldn't call the smaller 6 a Glorified 5S, it's much closer to the 5S than the 6 Plus.

 

[name99]

And here I thought Apple wasn't kidding when they were talking about not fragmenting their ecosystem...

Remember how the Siri exclusive fragmented the ecosystem? How about TouchID?
Yeah, me neither...

Don't be a freaking idiot. OBVIOUSLY ForceTouch is Apple's future direction across their entire product line, from iMacs to iPhones to watches. The only issue is technological reality. If either enough HW cannot be produced in time (a constant concern given Apple's volumes) or the necessary size of this year's hardware (ie an actual, moving motor) cannot fit in the iPhone6S, that doesn't mean the same is true next year.

 

[cocky jeremy]

I really hope this isn't true, it already annoys me that I don't have optical image stabilization. I tried the iPhone 6+ for a couple weeks... it was just too big.

I think you what you want is an iPhone 6 then. lol. The whole point of the 6 Plus is the size.

 

[KPOM]

Comparing Samsung's phones to Apple's in terms of what's considered "Flagship" is pointless. Two different manufactures and overall they are different products.

So how is OIS not practical on the smaller 6 screen? How is landscape mode not practical on the smaller 6 screen? How is the high-resolution screen on the 6plus's 5.5" screen not practical the smaller 6's screen that's basically only an inch smaller?
You're making excuses. Apple intended for only one of their phones to be considered the flagship and that's the 6 Plus.

The 12" Power was a glorified iBook. While I wouldn't call the smaller 6 a Glorified 5S, it's much closer to the 5S than the 6 Plus.

There is not room in the iPhone 6's case for OIS. They already had the "bulge" as it is. Apple doesn't formally designate any phone as its "flagship" but I don't see how the iPhone 6 is closer to the 5S than the 6. They both use the A8 processor. They both have Apple Pay. If the 6 Plus used the A8X or could run iPad apps, it would be different, but it doesn't. The 6 Plus is actually slower than the 6 because of the higher resolution screen. The latter is a design compromise because it down-samples from 3x the standard iPhone resolution (the 6 uses a native 2x resolution).

You're stretching by claiming the 6 Plus is intended as a "flagship" to a "lesser" iPhone 6. The differences in feature sets are pretty small.

 

[HenryDJP]

. The 6 Plus is actually slower than the 6 because of the higher resolution screen. The latter is a design compromise because it down-samples from 3x the standard iPhone resolution (the 6 uses a native 2x resolution).

You're stretching by claiming the 6 Plus is intended as a "flagship" to a "lesser" iPhone 6. The differences in feature sets are pretty small.

So now we're talking about speed differences? Regardless I'm certain that won't make a tiny fraction of a difference in real world performance.

You're making excuses as to what can't be done when Apple has historically shown that they skimp on features if you don't buy their (Top of the Line) flagship product. The product with gimped features cannot be considered a Flagship.
May I ask, are you a 6 or a 6 Plus owner?

 

[KPOM]

So now we're talking about speed differences? Regardless I'm certain that won't make a tiny fraction of a difference in real world performance.

You're making excuses as to what can't be done when Apple has historically shown that they skimp on features if you don't buy their (Top of the Line) flagship product. The product with gimped features cannot be considered a Flagship.
May I ask, are you a 6 or a 6 Plus owner?

How is the 6 "gimped"? I bought the 6, not because I couldn't afford the 6 Plus, but because I preferred the size of the 6.

Gamers actually do notice a big difference in performance. There is a reason Apple hasn't followed Samsung to ultra-high resolution screens. They take a toll on battery life and performance. The 6 Plus uses a rather kludgy way to achieve 1920x1080. It isn't a native resolution so Apple pretends it is 2208 × 1242 and down samples. If anything IT is the one that is gimped since it runs in a virtual resolution.

If you go back to the presentation, Phil Schiller touts both phones equally. His statement about added software features were more of "hey, we have the extra room, so we'll make some use of it." It isn't as if the iPhone 6 Plus runs any apps that the iPhone 6 does not, or runs any faster. The core functionality is the same.

 

[Breaking Good]

Reminds me of the iPhone 4. Beautiful phone at the time, but the single-core processor made it unuseable after a few OS revisions.

Huh?!

My employer provided 8GB iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1.2 works fine for my needs. I've had it for about 2 1/2 years now.

 

[till213]

The fingerprint scanner worked just fine on my 5S...

It works better though on my iPad Air 2...

Just sayin'.

 

[0007776]

It annoys me that they stick the high end features only in the giant phones. I'd love to see the sales numbers if they had even specs across different sizes of phones. I'd bet the big ones would see a drop in sales.

 

[NT1440]

I love how almost no one is forgetting how much space this technology takes up inside of the device. Have you seen how big the Taptic Engine is when covering a surface that large? Perhaps they are not able to fit it into the 6s.

For those of you pointing out the the Watch has it, the Watch is 10.5 mm thick. The 6 and 6 plus are not that thick. The 6 plus is slightly thicker than the 6 and it also has the added length and width. These currently allow it to have optical image stabilization and longer battery life. This means that it has extra room while the 6 does not.

Image

What in the world makes you think Apple wouldn't be engineering the appropriate tactic engine for the appropriate product?

We have two haptic feedback devices for two separate product lines right now (MacBooks, Apple Watch). Nothing about the physical forms dictates anything about how it would be implemented on the phone. My guess is we'll see something closer to the taptic engine in the watch, but much thinner and paired closely to the display.

 

[2IS]

How is the 6 "gimped"? I bought the 6, not because I couldn't afford the 6 Plus, but because I preferred the size of the 6.

Gamers actually do notice a big difference in performance. There is a reason Apple hasn't followed Samsung to ultra-high resolution screens. They take a toll on battery life and performance. The 6 Plus uses a rather kludgy way to achieve 1920x1080. It isn't a native resolution so Apple pretends it is 2208 × 1242 and down samples. If anything IT is the one that is gimped since it runs in a virtual resolution.

If you go back to the presentation, Phil Schiller touts both phones equally. His statement about added software features were more of "hey, we have the extra room, so we'll make some use of it." It isn't as if the iPhone 6 Plus runs any apps that the iPhone 6 does not, or runs any faster. The core functionality is the same.

I own a 6 Plus and agree with this. My cousins 6 is a little smoother. My Plus with transparency turned off brings it to the same level of fluidity as the 6 with transparency enabled, but obviously things don't look nearly as pretty. I do prefer how the 6 feels in my hand, but ultimately, I wanted the additional battery life, and the added screen size/real estate is very handy for watching videos or viewing web pages with lots of content.

Ultimately I think most people decided based on usage not on price.

 

[FieldingMellish]

It's too expensive and complicated to do the same feature in two different size phones, all coming on board at the same time and into the millions of units.

 

[ttss6]

3GS= Speed, 4S= Siri, 5S= Security, 6S= Sensitivity?

 

[AlecZ]

"iPhone 6s Plus" sounds like a Droid name now.

 

[dannys1]

I wonder if there would be issues with "butt-touch" interface (phones in back packets)?

Maybe why Force Touch could be aimed at the 6s Plus only, because that model is too big to fit in a lot of folks' pockets. I'm kind of half-joking, but still curious what Force Touch would look like on a device that could be more susceptible to inadvertent presses on the screen.

It doesn't work like that - its captive just like the screen now - it only reacts to things that conduct electricity, eg, your fingers.

 

[CaryMacGuy]

I plan on getting the 6s Plus...Gotta love Verizon Edge
I wonder if Force Touch would be positioned to be a feature to rival the Galaxy Note family. The Note features a pressure sensitive stylus. I personally would love to have a built in stylus to the iPhone 6s Plus (with probably a cooler sounding name than "stylus").

Thoughts about this idea?