Kuo: 2022 iPhones May Feature Under-Screen Touch ID

[kc9hzn]

Why only 2022? It's a pandemic, which rendered FaceID useless (masks), come on, you had more than a year to "innovate"

Do you really think hardware, especially new hardware like underscreen Touch ID, gets developed, readied for mass-production, and released in a year? I’d imagine Apple hardware releases are typically on a 30 to 36 month (2.5 to 3 year) development cycle. (And Apple’s software development cycle for headline features is probably 18 to 24 months.) The last year or so of development is preparation for mass-production, followed by mass production in preparation for release. Mass production for the 2021 iPhones is already on-going, for instance.

Now, I don’t really see Apple offering Face ID and Touch ID in the same phone (mostly because they’d be redundant biometric features taking up valuable volume within the phone - in particular, it would subtract space from the battery and thus reduce the battery life), and I don’t see Apple eliminating Face ID, which has real speed advantages over Touch ID. I think underscreen Touch ID in a new phone might be limited to something like the 2022 iPhone SE or some other not-quite-iPhone-14 model that would be released in 2022, or to non-iPhone products like the iPad or Mac laptops, possibly the Apple Watch. (Actually, an Apple Watch with Touch ID could be a cool thing, it could, at the very least, allow Keychain to come to watchOS and simplify logging in to third party apps, allow for buying apps on the watchOS App Store without entering your password, and allow the user to require Touch ID authentication to unlock your nearby Macs and iPhones using your Apple Watch, not to mention bypassing the passcode screen when you put it on.)

 

[anthony13]

I went three years with the X, but it’s gonna be one and done with the 12. The battery life has been too lack luster for my use. Hoping the 13 packs a bigger battery, and will switch to a max if necessary.

 

[darngooddesign]

iPhone 13 slowly but surely becomes like a lackluster upgrade

Congratulations, you've been successfully manipulated by the rumor mill.

 

[darngooddesign]

the butterfly keyboard disagree.

The final year of the butterfly keyboard agrees with him.

 

[darngooddesign]

Look forward to the 2022 iPhones which is when I’ll upgrade next “. Touch ID under the display should have been a priority this year, feels like it’s rumoured every year, but hope Kuo is wrong and it comes this Sept as considering the circumstances it should be a priority upgrade for apple IMO.

But under-screen Touch ID is coming in 2023.

 

[MecPro]

I have the XS max and I thought I’d definitely uograde this year as it’s getting a bit slower than usual and the battery is lasting less than a day.

Mandatory mask wearing has been an issue with FaceID and really wanted in screen TouchID on the 12 - as other manufacturers done it on Android already. So I hope this news isn’t true, but I’d need to upgrade one way or another

 

[ThomasJL]

Why only 2022? It's a pandemic, which rendered FaceID useless (masks), come on, you had more than a year to "innovate"

Why only 2022? Because Tim Cook is a clueless MBA suit who can’t make the connection between something as simple as masks work better with Touch ID than with Face ID.

 

[MartyvH]

Apple needed to stop the self-indulgent stretching with R&D for this under-screen thing last year and just bring across the power button Touch ID - tech that's ready to go - starting this September for the whole iPhone 13 family. Quit screwing around in the pandemic.

 

[DARKiLLUSiON]

Having both Face ID and Touch ID sensor on one phone sounds awesome actually. With COVID...I actually missed using my iPhone 6 right now... finger print sensor

 

[ian87w]

Why only 2022? Because Tim Cook is a clueless MBA suit who can’t make the connection between something as simple as masks work better with Touch ID than with Face ID.

I'd say the onus should be on Ternus, being the SVP of hardware engineering. But they probably have been too pre-occupied with Apple Silicon transition.

Will see what will happen. The similar flat sides design of the iPad Air 4 and iPhone 12 shows that it should be simple enough to add TouchID on a redesigned power button. Or Apple could adjust the design into a recessed power button just like what Android OEMs do.

 

[ian87w]

I have the XS max and I thought I’d definitely uograde this year as it’s getting a bit slower than usual and the battery is lasting less than a day.

Mandatory mask wearing has been an issue with FaceID and really wanted in screen TouchID on the 12 - as other manufacturers done it on Android already. So I hope this news isn’t true, but I’d need to upgrade one way or another

Under-screen fingerprint sensors on Android are overhyped, as none of them performs as well as a plain old capacitive fingerprint sensors (on the older Android phones). So if Apple really went for under-screen TouchID, I hope Apple is using some newer tech, not the existing optical or ultrasonic ones.

 

[The Game 161]

Seems to me if they tested this year and needs more time it’s their own technology

 

[kc9hzn]

Why only 2022? Because Tim Cook is a clueless MBA suit who can’t make the connection between something as simple as masks work better with Touch ID than with Face ID.

Let’s see you make new hardware for millions of users and have it work to Apple (as opposed to Xiaomi) standards. The product development time on hardware is somewhere in the two to four year range, and it includes the time needed to test the devices, amp up component manufacturing, and mass produce the darn things. You can’t turn around hardware like that in the roughly 1.5 years that have eclipsed since the start of the pandemic, least of all with the supply chain difficulties the pandemic triggered.

 

[Walky7989]

I don't think Touch ID under the screen automatically means the notch is gone, unless Apple can fit everything else needed under the glass.

Lets see in 2022......🤔🤔

 

[kc9hzn]

Also on the topic of TouchID, here we are in June 2021, and I STILL see the rare person or two on the subway wearing surgical gloves. Never mind that they shouldn’t (gloves spread disease when used in public without frequent changing of gloves and is less effective than hand sanitizer or hand washing), these gloves don’t work with TouchID. I think it’s highly likely that the people who are going to persist in wearing masks after mandates end and people generally cease to wear them are going to be the same sort of people who wear gloves when out in public.

My point is that there will be a time that most people will cease to wear masks in their day to day lives, they’re not a permanent fixture. At that point, the mask argument against Face ID loses whatever punch it has. And the sort of people who will persist in wearing masks are likely the same sorts of people who persist in wearing gloves or faceguards in non-health-care situations, despite public health recommendations to the contrary. Neither Face ID nor Touch ID would work for them.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Seems to me if they tested this year and needs more time it’s their own technology

Maybe it will be a much larger as sensor area as rumoured.

 

[darngooddesign]

Seems to me if they tested this year and needs more time it’s their own technology

Apple probably perfecting their anti-spoofing technology because current under-screen readers can be fooled easier than Touch ID/Face ID.

 

[Hi!]

No under display touch ID= My money is safe from Apple’s greedy little hands…

This is hilarious 😂 🤣

 

[I7guy]

Why only 2022? It's a pandemic, which rendered FaceID useless (masks), come on, you had more than a year to "innovate"

People who wore gloves were not very friendly to Touch ID as well.

 

[nintendoswitch]

I really hope they keep faceID. Like they said when they announced iPhone X, that rouch ID has a 1 in 50,000 chance someone could unlock your phone with their fingerprint, and a 1 in 100,000 chance someone could unlock your phone with their face. Making Face ID much more secure.

 

[Hi!]

Why would Apple will have a notch and screen fingerprint together?

Apple may introduce finger screen print along with a side button for Touch ID like the iPad Air.

Yeah, I thought it was going to be like the iPad, but how could you have a case over it? I guess they would make cases that have a cut out on it. Because why would Apple spend a lot of money designing the Touch ID on the iPad Air if they aren’t going to do it with the iPhone 13?

 

[Termy]

I really hope they keep faceID. Like they said when they announced iPhone X, that rouch ID has a 1 in 50,000 chance someone could unlock your phone with their fingerprint, and a 1 in 100,000 chance someone could unlock your phone with their face. Making Face ID much more secure.

Yeah then don't use it. I want to have TouchID as an alternative nevetheless. I don't care if it's 100k or 50k or 10k

 

[ThomasJL]

Why only 2022? It's a pandemic, which rendered FaceID useless (masks), come on, you had more than a year to "innovate"

Why? Because Tim Cook is a clueless MBA suit.

 

[kc9hzn]

Why? Because Tim Cook is a clueless MBA suit.

See my earlier responses about how long the development cycle for new hardware and software is. It would be hard to change hardware plans to pivot towards Touch ID in new iPhones in the time since the pandemic began. In March of last year, the final specs for the 2020 iPhones were likely already finalized or were near being finalized, too late to add a TouchID sensor without product delays that would push the release back to likely early 2021. You’d have to redesign the internal layout of every component to add it at that stage.

Trust me, a hardware revision like that just could not be pushed into the 2020 iPhones. Besides, it took a few months before it was obvious that this would be a lingering issue, one could still fairly easily believe in March 2021 that things would return back to normal by May. By May, it was certainly too late to make any changes to the design of the 2020 phones.