Face ID has been very well received since the arrival of the iPhone X back in 2017, but a new report has Apple planning on launching a new budget iPhone specifically designed for the Chinese market that includes an under-screen fingerprint sensor instead.
The report comes via The Global Times which says the iPhone will be released in an attempt to try and address sliding iPhone sales in the country.
The ongoing trade war between China and the United States hasn’t helped things either, and Apple hopes that a cheaper iPhone will help boost sales.
In order to maximise profit and reduce the overall price of the iPhone, Apple plans to offer the handset with a new under-screen fingerprint sensor while ditching Face ID. The sensors employed by Face ID are costly, something highlighted by the ballooning iPhone prices since its introduction.
The new phone will reportedly remove Face ID, the facial recognition system for the iPhone, and instead employ an under-display fingerprint function, news site caijing.com.cn reported, citing sources on the upstream industry supply chain. An industry insider revealed that this is likely to “save on costs.”
A structured light laser emitter, the major component of Face ID, would cost several hundred yuan, said a Beijing-based representative who preferred to be anonymous. He told the Global Times on Monday that “only Apple can afford it but that would also affect its sales.”
Apple has been rumored to be working on a version of Touch ID that could be placed beneath a display for the last couple of years. The company’s was said to have ditched that plan in order to focus on Face ID however, so whether it is still in the pipeline for use in a China-specific iPhone remains to be seen. And why not launch the phone worldwide, too?
We’re not at all convinced that any of this will pan out but if it does we’d be very interested to see how it is received.
(Source: Global Times)
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