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Apple might ditch Touch ID altogether for next year’s iPhones

Apple might ditch Touch ID altogether for next year’s iPhones

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It’s a little early to put much credibility in rumors about the next iPhones coming in 2018. But KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has established a strong track record of Apple hardware forecasts, says that the company is likely to completely move away from Touch ID on the successors to this year’s iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X. MacRumors reported on Kuo’s latest note. Hopefully the various components of the tech will be more readily available by then; the Face ID system is believed to be one of the bottlenecks that could severely limit supply of the iPhone X when it goes on sale November 3rd.

The iPhone X is the first Apple smartphone to feature a design with no home button, and it replaces Touch ID with the company’s new Face ID technology. Kuo’s prediction is that we’ve seen the last of Touch ID with the iPhone 8, and next year will see Apple go all in on Face ID. "We believe this change will allow all new models to realize a competitive advantage via differentiation, on the back of an integrated user experience of full-screen design and TrueDepth Camera/Facial recognition/Face ID/AR applications," Kuo wrote in his note.

Kuo previously hedged that Face ID completely replacing Touch ID so quickly would depend on the public’s reception to the new feature on the iPhone X, but he seems to be more confident that it’s the plan now. Earlier this week, Kuo said in another note that he also expects to see the iPad Pro gain the new facial recognition system sometime next year when the line is updated.