14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors about Apple implementing a Force Touch-enabled display on its iPhone products have been circling online for some time.
Force Touch is a new technology that understands the difference between the various amounts of pressure applied. Basically, it can distinguish between light touches and hard presses.
The feature can be achieved by implementing a sensor inside the panel, but this expansion of performance does not come cheap.
Apple is already utilizing the Force Touch setup in the yet-to-ship-out Apple Watch, which has been costing the company $4 / €3 to $5 / €4 a unit.
But implementing the same technology inside the iPhone will cost the phone maker a lot more, mostly due to the size of the device's display.
A new report coming out of Asian publication UDN claims that implementing Force Touch inside the next-gen iPhone will cost the Cupertino tech giant $13 / €12 to $14 / €13 per piece.
Only the iPhone 6s Plus will get Force Touch?
Insider sources familiar with the matter also point out that only one of the purported three iPhone models coming later in 2015 will be taking advantage of the technology. It's not going to be the smaller iPhone 6s, but the more premium iPhone 6s Plus phablet.
While this is just a rumor at this point, it's pretty obvious that Apple wants to extend the use of Force Touch to other products from its portfolio. Actually, the new Retina MacBook takes advantage of it too.
Word on the street also indicates that Apple Force Touch display supplier TPK is poised to see major profits by the end of the year, and that's because the Cupertino tech giant will need massive amounts of those panels for its iPhone 6s Plus production.
It has also been revealed that another China-based supplier, GIS, will take on the task of producing the Force Touch technology needed by Apple for its future iPhones.
The phone maker is expected to unveil not two but three new iPhones in 2015. Word has it that Apple is also looking to refresh its budget-oriented plastic device, the iPhone 5c, a model that saw the light of day back in 2013.