Rumors about the iPhone 15 is already piling up at an alarming rate, proving once again that it’s never too early to anticipate new information about an upcoming iPhone release. Was not it? iPhone 14 series released last month, in September? Never mind, we’re already hearing rumors about the iPhone 16, so it’s business as usual!
Well-known Apple insider Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple is reportedly planning to get rid of the physical buttons on “two high-end iPhone models” by 2023 and make full use of static capacitive buttons. According to the popular analyst, the revolution in design will reportedly mean the removal of both the volume buttons and the power button. The static buttons in their place will provide haptic feedback, which would aim to replicate the feel of a real button.
It doesn’t take a genius to assume this stunner of a design change is the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Ultra (née iPhone 15 Pro Max), which will inevitably be the most premium iPhones released next year.
This is definitely not the first time Apple has taken such a step. The For example, the iPhone 7 series in 2016 dropped the physical home button for a static button that gave similar feedback, mimicking the feeling of pressing a real button. Since 2015, all MacBooks have also dropped clickable touchpads for static touchpads that also provide haptic feedback.
However, nothing is said about the mute switch, a signature hardware feature of the iPhone, which can hardly be mimicked by a comparable technology. Our guess is that this one (hopefully) sticks around and won’t disappear from the iPhone features list anytime soon.
Ming-Chi Kuo also apparently knows which of the major suppliers of taptic motors are: Luxshare ICT and AAC technologies. Both Chinese companies reportedly expect 80% to 100% annual growth in taptic motor deliveries by 2023. have no reason to doubt his claims.
We already know about another quite significant change that will take place with the iPhone 15: it was recently confirmed that Apple will indeed comply with the recent ruling requires devices sold in the EU to ship with a USB Type-C charging port. While the law technically gives Apple enough time until 2024 and the iPhone 16 generation to use the USB charging port, it looks like Cupertino could preemptively meet the requirement in advance.
However, Ming-Chi Kuo doesn’t expect USB Type-C vendors to benefit much from Apple’s move to USB Type-C. Due to the maturity of the technology and the low cost of a unit, the insider does not expect relevant suppliers to improve their bottom line much.
As a refresher, this time around, we expect Apple to announce another four iPhone models, but with a slightly revamped naming scheme: iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Ultra. With the iPhone 14 series, we witnessed the untimely death of the “mini” model, and it looks like the iPhone 15 could potentially bring the kibosh to the “Pro Max” model, with a much more advanced “Ultramodel rises from the ashes with even more differentiation from the regular iPhone Pro.
Some other new features that could make the iPhone 15 Ultra much more distinct from the regular iPhone 15 models could be an even more capable camera and hardware, potentially significantly improving the 48MP main sensor that debuted with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
