Roger Fingas
While Apple is likely to add Face ID to more products this year, LG Innotek's rumored TrueDepth supply expansion will only come into play in 2019, a report indicated on Tuesday.
"We believe that LG Innotek is planning to make investments in order to construct new production lines for face recognition modules that will be supplied to Apple," a representative with an unspecified smartphone parts supplier told South Korea's ETNews. "It is considering products that will be released in 2019 and not 2018."
LG Innotek recently announced a $821 million investment into camera and emitter module facilities. Though didn't specifically cite Apple as the motivation, Apple is one of the world's biggest smartphone makers, and eventually expected to replace Touch ID with Face ID across its entire product line.
LG is already believed to be making facial recognition modules for the iPhone X, and even without expanded production could play a role in adding TrueDepth cameras to all 2018 iPhones, as well as new iPad Pros.
In December Apple announced plans to pump $390 million into Finisar, which makes vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), a central component in the TrueDepth system.
ETNews suggested that Apple is "looking into" combining facial recognition and camera modules, but didn't elaborate on the matter.
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Before anyone gets too excited, this does not mean they’re going to bin FaceID and carry on with TouchID.