Ming-Chi Kuo is back! A mere two days ago, the KGI Securities analyst – who is basically the forecasting guru in the Apple world – gave his views on sales of the latest Apple products.
Now, in yet another report, he has hinted at things that will come, shall we say, going forward.
Specifically: the iPhones of the future and their forms of authentication.
As is well known, Apple has taken a very drastic step in recent weeks by presenting the most expensive and most powerful of all iPhones (the X) without a feature that has accompanied its mobile line for years, the Touch ID.
In his place, we have an ultra-advanced facial recognition system (so they say, at least – no one has yet been able to test it, after all) called Face ID; on the other hand, the also new iPhones 8/8 Plus still come with a good old digital reading system and do not have the technology of face reading.
According to Kuo, things could change next year: the analyst said that if Face ID is well received by the public, Apple will implement a camera with TrueDepth technology (which allows facial recognition and other features, such as Animoji) on all iPhone models in 2018.
In other words, unless the feature is a complete failure in the eyes of users, we will see the entire future line of Apple smartphones adopting Face ID.
However, this is not the only possibility, according to Kuo.
He said that, in case the technology is not well accepted by the public (after all, it creates a general perception that Face ID is less accurate or reliable than its predecessor – nobody can predict people’s reaction), the Apple can change gears and turn its attention to an old (un) known: the fingerprint reading technology built into the screen.
The Touch ID on the display is, as we well know, the main character of a soap opera that has spread over the past year – nobody knew exactly whether it would be implemented on the iPhone X or not and, in the end, Apple ended up leaving it from the outside – either because it failed to develop it in time or because Face ID was already its main plan from the beginning.
Now, even if his existence is in doubt, there is still hope that he may appear in the not too distant future.
This whole discussion naturally touches on an equally important one, which is the future of the iPhones line itself.
At least to me, it seems quite clear that the iPhone X’s shape and features will be adopted as standard very soon; in other words, the Start button and the borders have a date set to die.
It remains to be seen when (it may be already in 2018 or five years from now) and how we will unlock these infamous devices of the future.
Guesses?
via 9to5Mac
