iPhone 7 Successor Iris Scanner To Replace Touch ID? Apple Follows Samsung’s Lead With Galaxy Note 7 Advanced Biometrics

While the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are expected to be minor upgrades of the 6s and the 6s Plus, the upcoming 10th anniversary iPhones are rumored to be major upgrades with a different form factor and more advanced features — the latter could include an iris scanner as what a new report is saying.

MacRumors has learned that DigiTimes may have retracted its previous claim that Apple is not debuting an iPhone with an iris scanner until 2018, because, apparently, the Asian electronics newspaper is now reporting about the addition of such an advanced biometrics feature that is made popular by the Galaxy Note 7 to the 2017 iPhone.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) affiliate Xintec is entering mass production for iris-scanning chips next year, in time for the production of the 10th anniversary iPhones, DigiTimes reported, citing a Chinese news story from MoneyDJ.com as source.

Xintec — which specializes in making CMOS image sensors, MEMS and fingerprint sensors — will reportedly fulfil orders for iris-recognition sensors and chips that would be used in the 2017 iPhone line.

With the emergence of such a report, MacRumors says that the iris-scanning technology could replace Apple’s Touch ID for identity verification. However, the Apple-focused website also acknowledged the probability that the iris scanner could serve as a complementary feature to Touch ID. If it’s going to be the latter, then it’s just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 all over again, since the South Korean phablet comes with both an iris scanner and a fingerprint sensor.

Apart from the iris scanner, the upcoming iPhone 7 successor is also rumored to come with a 5.8-inch curved OLED Screen, wireless charging technology and a glass casing. It is also rumored to arrive sans a headphone jack like its predecessor and without a physical home button, according to Forbes.

The news about the iris-scanning technology of the 10th anniversary iPhones comes days before the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus officially debut during Apple’s Sept. 7 media event.