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Apple’s big gamble: iPhone 8 to scrap Touch ID entirely?

We’ve reported recently about Apple’s expected inclusion of face detection technology in its upcoming iPhone 8 handset, but the assumption has always been that some form of Touch ID would remain as a fallback option.

Well, reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Forbes contributor Gordon Kelly are convinced otherwise. Kuo’s latest reports claims that after troubles embedding fingerprint sensors under the display, Apple has decided to ditch Touch ID entirely from the iPhone 8.

It was previously thought that Apple’s “Plan B” would be to include some form of fingerprint sensor on the power button, or even on the backside of the iPhone. Those compromises seem to be forgotten though, with Kuo backing up his claims with information from the Apple’s recent firmware leak.

On the one hand, this signals massive trust from Apple in its new face detection technology, which is a good sign. However, it’s also a huge gamble to take with a system untested by the public. It looks as though “Face ID” (or whatever it ends up being called) will be the most accurate and most secure face scanner ever released on a large scale, but will that alone be enough to justify leaving out the tried and tested biometric authentication of Touch ID?

In order to avoid a backlash, it needs to be a whole lot better than the face detection Samsung uses on its flagship devices. Really, it needs to be better than Touch ID ever was so we users don’t miss the old ways.

Time will tell, but Apple has a long history of killing off popular technologies in favor of something new (see: floppy disks, CD drives, headphone jacks, USB-A ports.) We wouldn’t be too surprised if this turned out to be true too.