Over the past few years, Apple has been changing its methods to improve its biometric user experience. We've seen Apple use a physical home button, Touch ID, and 3D ID facial recognition.
In the current iPhone product line, only the Apple iPhone SE still retains the Home button. However, it seems that this situation will change soon enough.
There are reports that Apple has updated the demo image of the patent related to the side fingerprint from two years ago. The new demo image now shows an iPhone-like style rather than the former flat form.
Simply put, the image shows the three states of the lock screen: waiting to be unlocked, then unlocked, and then after unlocked.
The patent clearly states that the device integrates a power button with a fingerprint recognition sensor. Since the current iPad Air 4 has already released a side fingerprint, there is reason to believe that the iPhone and other iPad products will follow soon.
There's little doubt that the iPhone SE has finally done away with the Home button. As the cheapest model in Apple's mobile phone product line, the side fingerprint also helps keep costs down and separates it from the iPhone digital product line. According to Kuo Ming-Chi, Apple is still testing under-display fingerprint sensors.
Of course, we don't expect this upcoming Apple iPhone with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor to be a flagship. If Apple were to use this solution, it might be on its cheaper iPhone SE series. The iPhone SE 3 may come with this feature.
iPhone 12 series sales exceed 100 million units
A new report from Counterpoint Research shows that sales of the iPhone 12 series are now over 100 million units. This is the first iPhone supercycle since the iPhone 6, which is a wave of mass replacements. In fact, the iPhone 12 series surpassed the 100 million unit mark in April this year.
This shows that the goal was achieved within 7 months of the device's release. The iPhone 11, released in 2019, had over 100 million sales and took 9 months to ship.
That year, the iPhone 6 was less than 7 months old, and its sales exceeded 100 million. That year, the iPhone 6's high sales volume was due to its larger screen.
This time, in iPhone 12, consumers mainly appreciate new features such as 5G network and OLED screen. In the iPhone 12 series, the Pro Max model is the first choice for many customers. It has amassed 29% market share, while the iPhone 11 Pro Max has 25% market share.
