Sam Oliver
The fingerprint sensing home button rumored to be on Apple's next iPhone will be a capacitive touch-sensitive button covered by scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass, a new report claims.
The alleged details come from Taiwan's Technews.tw, in a report first highlighted by Cult of Mac on Tuesday. The rumor claims Apple will ditch the physical button found on all previous iPhones, opting instead for a touch-sensitive virtual button.
The unconfirmed report claims that Apple will utilize sapphire crystal glass because of its compatibility with optic sensors. Apple already utilizes a crystal glass cover to enclose the iPhone 5 rear camera.
The report noted that the physical home button on previous iPhone models has been problematic and prone to failure. But rather than ditch the home button entirely, it suggests that Apple will replace it with a touch-sensitive, non-moving part — much like Apple did in replacing the scroll wheel on the original iPod.
The very first iPod made by Apple had a mechanical wheel that would physically spin around to allow a user to scroll. That was quickly replaced with a touch-sensitive wheel with the second-generation model.
By using sapphire crystal glass, Apple allegedly plans to prevent scratches on the surface, which could ruin the fingerprint sensing capabilities expected to be featured in the so-called "iPhone 5S."
Well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in January that Apple was planning on including a fingerprint sensor under the home button of the "iPhone 5S." He gave no indication that Apple planned to ditch the physical button that can be pressed, however.
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
Amber Neely
Andrew O'Hara
Sponsored Content
Charles Martin
89 Comments
I just can't see the physical home button going away, as while the mechanism can certainly be improved, physical buttons are so much more reliable than capacitive buttons when it comes to feel. I do like the use of sapphire crystal though, would definitely give it a signature feel, and a fingerprint sensor is a very secure, proven reliable form of security (especially when compared to facial recognition).
A fingerprint sensor seems like something they could test on the MacBooks first, before deploying on the iPhone. To get all the kinks out.
"and a fingerprint sensor is a very secure, proven reliable form of security (especially when compared to facial recognition)." no it's not. Because of resolution concerns, lacks of different points of information and so on, it's easy to have many persons having the same fingerprints for cheap captors you have in laptop or mobiles. You can also fool them. It can be convenient, but not secure for sure.
That home button was an engineering disaster
Does this mean that price of iPhone is going to get increased, while cheaper iPhone not really cheaper?