Bloomberg: Apple altered Face ID spec to meet iPhone X targets

Ever since the iPhone X was announced, there’s been a rumor that the handset will be a rarer commodity than gold dust and the Venus de Milo’s arms, combined. That’s because the components used to build the device’s facial-recognition sensor are so complex that it’s been nearly impossible to mass-produce. Now, a report from Bloomberg believes that Apple has found a solution by “relaxing” the specifications for FaceID.

Face ID, if you’re unfamiliar, takes a series of sensors that are very similar to the ones found in the Kinect, and shrinks them down to the size of the iPhone X’s notorious notch. Such a feat of engineering was, according to the report, something of a surprise for Apple’s suppliers, who didn’t have the usual time to prepare to build them. But the dot projector, which uses lasers to illuminate a user’s face, is so precise that there’s no margin for error when building it.

Apple sets a famously high bar for its components, and pays top dollar to ensure it has the most reliable parts for its devices. During production of the projector modules, Bloomberg reports that only 20 percent of them were actually usable. The results prompted manufacturers to dramatically slow down their production lines in an attempt to improve the yield on the components. The report says that, crucially, Apple has “relaxed some of the specifications for Face ID.”

Of course, that’s not particularly clear, because either Apple has lowered the quality control tolerance for its components, or the accuracy of Face ID itself. Since all of these discussions are taking place behind closed doors, it’s hard to judge if the iPhone X will emerge to reduced expectations of technical brilliance or not. Although the report adds that even if FaceID’s standards were lowered, it would still be vastly more secure than Touch ID.

There’s also the long-standing issue that surrounds Apple’s ambitious plan to equip the iPhone X with an OLED display. Suppliers have often explained that there simply aren’t enough of the components to equip Apple, and believe the issue won’t be resolved until late in 2018. If you really really want to get an iPhone X before your friends, it’s likely that you’ll be spending a small fortune on one when they inevitably hit the grey market.

Source: Bloomberg