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Kuo: Apple delays under-display Touch ID for iPhone to 2023, foldable iPhone to 2024

A week after Apple announced the new iPhone 13 line, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has shared a few tidbits about an iPhone with under-display Touch ID as well as a foldable iPhone.

According to Kuo, people shouldn’t expect the next iPhone to have an under-display Touch ID, as this technology has been delayed for at least another year.

Kuo writes in a note seen by 9to5Mac:

We have revised our forecast to delay the launch of the iPhone with under-display fingerprint and the foldable iPhone to 2H23 and 2024, respectively, due to lower than expected development progress. We believe this will hurt iPhone shipments in 2022 and 2023.

This is not the first time Kuo reported that Apple was working on this technology, but he now makes it clear that under-display Touch ID will not be ready for the 2022 iPhone lineup.

Recently, in his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said Apple tested under-display Touch ID on the iPhone 13 line, but it didn’t make the cut. He wrote in August:

While Apple had tested in-screen Touch ID for the next flagship iPhones, it won’t make the cut this year. I believe Apple is all-in on Face ID for its higher-end iPhones and its long-term goal is to implement Face ID in the display itself.

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Kuo also believes that for 2024, the foldable design may be the most critical selling point for high-end smartphones.

Earlier this year, Kuo expected Apple to ship 20 million units of the first foldable iPhone in 2023. Based on sources, the analyst said Apple expected to ship between 15 to 20 million of the foldable iPhone in 2023. Now, however, Kuo says that Apple’s release of a foldable iPhone has been delayed until 2024.

In a previous report on the first foldable iPhone, Kuo predicted that the device will have a screen between 7.5 and 8 inches.

At present, the product position of foldable smartphones is mainly to integrate the smartphone and tablet. But we believe that the foldable smartphone is only one of the applications of the foldable design. We predict that foldable devices will blur the product segmentations between smartphones, tablets, and laptops in the future. With its cross-product ecosystems and hardware design advantages, Apple will be the biggest winner in the new foldable device trend.

If everything new with the iPhone 13 isn’t enough for you right now, you can read our full roundup on everything rumors point out about the iPhone 14 here.

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