The 2015 line of iPhones that are expected to launch this fall will feature the Force Touch input that is found on the Apple Watch, according to AppleInsider.
The Apple rumor publication, citing its own sources, says the next-generation handsets are internally codenamed “N71” for the 4.7-inch model and “N66” for the 5.5-inch version. They’re said to keep the “iPhone 6s” naming convention like the iPhone 5s, and like with every “S” model release, will retain the same design as the previous version.
The Force Touch technology is featured on the Apple Watch due to launch in April, shown by Apple as a handy feature that relies on a bunch of tiny electrodes around the Watch’s display that recognize the difference between a tap and a press, thereby providing the user with quick access to contextually specific controls.
An iDownloadBlog poll in January showed 59 percent of readers want the technology featured on the next Apple handset.
If Apple were to implement Force Touch on the iPhone 6s line, it would need to rework the iOS user interface and introduce new tools so that developers could define custom options for when the screen is pressed. Typically “S” model releases are accompanied with big software changes.
One of AppleInsider’s sources “who has recently proven extremely knowledgable regarding Apple’s forward-looking plans” said the company toyed with putting Force Touch in the iPhone 6 last year, but “calibration” issues led to the feature being pulled from the device during its development cycle.
Furthermore, the publication says Apple has ditched plans for a dual-camera system on the next-generation handset like rumors have suggested.
Source: AppleInsider