It has been rumored time and again that Apple is going to do away with the physical home button in the iPhone 8 that’s due later this year. This raises the question about where the company plans on putting the fingerprint sensor. Some reports suggest that the iPhone 8 is going to have an optical fingerprint sensor that’s going to be embedded in the display itself. We’re now hearing that this remains the “biggest bottleneck” that the company is yet to solve.
Analyst Timothy Arcuri of Cowen and Company sent a note to investors today which shares information he has obtained from his own supply chain field work that Apple is facing yield issues with its next flagship smartphone.
“For the 5.8-inch OLED version, the biggest bottleneck remains integrating an under-glass fingerprint sensor into the display,” he writes, adding that the current yield rate of Apple’s own AuthenTec solution is low and that the company is unwilling to use an under-glass fingerprint sensor made by a third-party.
If it’s unable to resolve these issues, the company might pull a Samsung and relocate the fingerprint sensor to the back of the device. Or it might announce the handset in the fall as previously planned but delay production so that it has additional time to sort out the issues before it puts out the product that it really wants.
Whether or not that’s going to happen remains to be seen. Apple hasn’t confirmed anything about the next iPhone so far and it’s unlikely that the company will say anything about it before the actual announcement.
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