iPhone 15 Pro models will not have solid-state buttons, shareholder letter confirms

Solid-state buttons were expected for iPhone 15 Pro

In a letter to its shareholders, Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has ostensibly confirmed that the iPhone 15 will not have the much-rumored solid-state buttons.

In October, Apple analysts suggested that the mute switch, volume, and power buttons would be replaced by solid-state components in iPhone 15 Pro models. The change, while controversial, would improve the device's watertight integrity and add new gestures.

However, a shareholder letter spotted by MacRumors from Cirrus Logic may have just confirmed that the change won't take place this year.

"That said, among the HPMS opportunities we have discussed, a new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as being scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to come to market as planned," the letter reads.

"As we have limited visibility into our customer's future plans for this product at this time, we are removing the revenue associated with this component from our internal model."

Cirrus Logic's high-performance, mixed-signal (HPMS) would have been necessary to provide the haptic drivers required for the solid-state buttons.

The letter goes on to say that the supplier expects to bring the new component to market in 2024.

In April, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple abandoned adding solid-state buttons to the iPhone 15 Pro due to production issues.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15 Pro during an event in September 2023. It could feature a rounded titanium frame with a new periscope telephoto lens.

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7 Comments

AniMill

said about 11 months ago

Periscope lens - yes! Solid-state buttons - whatever. Right now the camera is the iPhone’s most important feature for me. I don’t play games, so the speed of the CPU is less critical. What is critical is a reliable cell connection, and Apple has no control over that. Verizon has terrible connectivity issues several miles around my home. I admit it, I’d love to see an Apple owned/designed/maintained cellular network. I’d happily pay the tax.
(sorry for off-topic)
I currently own the iPhone 13 mini and love it’s form-factor, but I also admit many apps simply won’t scale down to its screen size, and I often can’t find buttons. And the keyboard is a bit tiny. So I hope that the periscope lens will be in the normal 15 Pro.

M68000

said about 11 months ago

AniMill said:

Periscope lens - yes! Solid-state buttons - whatever. Right now the camera is the iPhone’s most important feature for me. I don’t play games, so the speed of the CPU is less critical. What is critical is a reliable cell connection, and Apple has no control over that. Verizon has terrible connectivity issues several miles around my home. I admit it, I’d love to see an Apple owned/designed/maintained cellular network. I’d happily pay the tax.
(sorry for off-topic)
I currently own the iPhone 13 mini and love it’s form-factor, but I also admit many apps simply won’t scale down to its screen size, and I often can’t find buttons. And the keyboard is a bit tiny. So I hope that the periscope lens will be in the normal 15 Pro.

The most important feature of iPhone to me is security and the App Store process to prevent rogue apps from getting on our iPhones. Apple is already doing a pretty good job of this it seems. As for cameras, the current phones are already good for using such a tiny sensor and tiny lens. I’m not suggesting sensors or lens need to get bigger, the weight of the phones should be an important design consideration. The larger phones are already heavy, thinking back to what was the norm years ago.

coolfactor

said about 11 months ago

AniMill said:

Periscope lens - yes! Solid-state buttons - whatever. Right now the camera is the iPhone’s most important feature for me. I don’t play games, so the speed of the CPU is less critical. What is critical is a reliable cell connection, and Apple has no control over that. Verizon has terrible connectivity issues several miles around my home. I admit it, I’d love to see an Apple owned/designed/maintained cellular network. I’d happily pay the tax.
(sorry for off-topic)
I currently own the iPhone 13 mini and love it’s form-factor, but I also admit many apps simply won’t scale down to its screen size, and I often can’t find buttons. And the keyboard is a bit tiny. So I hope that the periscope lens will be in the normal 15 Pro.

Have you considered a Cell Repeater mounted on your house? It would give you good local coverage. Wide price ranges, but would solve any frustration issues that you may experience.

person

said about 11 months ago

I’m glad it’ll have physical buttons.

I had an iPhone case that the buttons were so small I could not tell where they were. It doesn’t seem like that would matter, but many many times that I would try to adjust the volume it would end up activating the emergency alarm and I’d be scrambling to shut it down before it called 911.

After way too many times doing that I switched back to a case that I could feel the buttons, and it never happened again.

If they were solid state buttons, flush with the phone, that would be a terrible problem. They would have thousands upon thousands of false emergency calls.

AppleZulu

said about 11 months ago

Hidden in the links in this article is ‘famed’ analyst Ming-Chi Kuo first announcing the solid-state buttons, and then a few months later reversing himself. It’s interesting that the first (now believed to be incorrect) claim isn’t attributed to Kuo in the text of this article, while his later reversal, confirmed by this article, is attributed to Kuo in the text, leaving the reader with the impression that Kuo is (once again) correct.

My bet is that if the iPhone 15 does come out with solid-state buttons, the opposite will appear in an article here, attributing the first claim to Kuo, while (if it’s mentioned at all) noting the current no-solid-state-buttons news without attribution, helping Kuo successfully play both sides and be “correct” no matter what actually happens.