It has been made quite evident that buying an iPhone X will be very difficult until early 2018 but a recent report by Bloomberg provides some details as to what Apple is doing to improve the situation. According to Bloomberg’s report, the tech giant has decided to lower the specifications of the components of Face ID to allow its suppliers to manufacture the parts quicker. Bloomberg says that Apple told its suppliers to reduce the accuracy of the face-recognition technology to make the parts easier to manufacture. According to the report, this reduction seemed to have taken place around the same time as Apple announced the unveiling of the iPhone X last month.
SourceApple announced Face ID in lieu to Touch ID, given its superiority, claiming that Face ID’s accuracy is 1,000,000:1 to Touch ID’s 50,000:1. Even if they reduce the accuracy, it would be far superior to Touch ID at the rate that they claim it to be. The dot projector that Apple announced on the iPhone X, the hardware that emits 30,000 infrared beams onto a face to recognize, is the main issue which is causing the delay on the Face ID components. There were reports that the dot projector was causing shortages in the production of the iPhone X.
SourceAccording to Bloomberg, Apple’s earlier suppliers, Finisar, Sharp, and LG Innotek, have struggled to meet the requirements set by Apple and failed to combine the laser and the lens properly, at one stage, only 20 percent of the dot projectors made by the companies being actually usable. The reduction in the accuracy will allow the suppliers to test the parts quicker but there is no report as of now as to how this reduction will affect Face ID in reality. If the production of the iPhone X increases dramatically with no noticeable difference in the Face ID, it will be a huge win for Apple, analysts claiming that only about two or three million handsets will be ready by next week, making it difficult to preorder a device on Friday.
