IT House February 1 news, whistleblower Ben Geskin today exposed the rumored early design of Apple's iPhone X, the back of the device has a physical version of Touch ID, but did not appear on the subsequent iPhone X consumer version.
About five years ago, when it was rumored that Apple would move from the iPhone design with the long-adopted round home button and the thick upper and lower bezels to the full-screen design, there were major problems around how Apple would achieve user biometric authentication. Apple eventually introduced Face ID, but initial rumors suggested the company would stick with Touch ID and place it under the display or on the back of the device.
Echoing this, a fairly consistent set of leaks at the time described the iPhone X's design, with large top and bottom bezels, an uncircular corner of the display, an aluminum back case, and a round Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the back.
Looking back now, the breadth and detail of the so-called iPhone case has raised suspicions that Apple itself was behind the rumors, trying to lower customer expectations and flood the rumors with disinformation. It is also possible that these chassis were apple's internal prototypes for the early iPhone X.
It's been five years since Apple's flagship iPhone removed Touch ID, but rumors have been around that Apple's iPhone will restore the technology. According to Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal and Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple tested off-screen fingerprint scanning for at least some of the iPhone 13 models, but Apple apparently decided not to push the idea forward.
In a September 2021 research report, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple will launch at least one of the iPhone 15 series with an off-screen fingerprint scanner in the second half of 2023. There are also rumors that the larger iPhone SE Plus models will have Touch ID built into the power button, like the latest iPad Air 4 and iPad mini 6.