14 DAY TRIAL // A new report out of China says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has started to build the Touch ID fingerprint sensors destined for the next generation of Apple iDevices, including the iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3.
Cecb2b.com cites supply chain sources as saying that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is now making the fingerprint sensors for iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, and the third-generation iPad mini, in line with recent analyst reports citing similar sources.
In fact, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, along with subsidiaries Xintec and Suzhou Crystal Semiconductor, have already supplied the first run of Touch ID sensors to Apple and are now building more ahead of the official launch of the three iDevices, according to gforgames.
TSMC reportedly used its 8-inch fab (instead of a 12-inch facility that uses a 65nm manufacturing process) to produce the Touch ID, due to the risks tied to the 12-inch wafer-level packaging and poor yield rates.
The key takeaway is not that the iPhone 6 will perpetuate the Touch ID trend (which is pretty much a given at this point), but that Apple’s iPad line is also getting the elusive fingerprint scanning technology, which is believed to be ahead of competitors’ solutions by at least a year in research and development.
It isn’t clear when Tim Cook and his fellow executives plan to take the stage with plans to lift the cloth off these three products, but it’s believed that the unveiling will occur at a single event sometime in the September-October timeframe, three months after the Worldwide Developers Conference draws to a close.
At WWDC (June 2-6), Apple reportedly plans to make few to no hardware announcements, focusing only on demoing OS X 10.10 and iOS 8.
The desktop OS is said to be getting a major visual overhaul, as well as the usual new features here and there. OS X 10.10 will mark the first time in almost a decade that the Mac OS gets a complete makeover.
As far as iOS 8 is concerned, key additions reportedly include the Healthbook app, which makes use of biometric technologies soon to be embedded in Apple’s hardware, and an updated Maps app with transit directions, as well as numerous other features and enhancements.
At least one of the three iDevices mentioned above – iPhone 6 – is said to have entered production at Taiwanese partner Pegatron. This is reportedly the 4.7-inch model, with a 5.5-inch version planned for launch later this year.