Analyst: there’s a chance the ‘iPhone 8’ could ship without Touch ID

This ain’t gonna happen, but in a note to clients — as noted by AppleInsider — Andy Hargreaves, an equity research analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, thinks there’s a possibility that the “iPhone 8” could ship without a fingerprint sensor of any kind.

“At this point, we do not believe Apple’s optical fingerprint module provider has firm orders for production, which suggests Apple does not have functionality of the optical fingerprint sensor ready,” he expounds. “Additionally, we believe Apple has evaluated Synaptic’s optical fingerprint solution, but that it has not been qualified.”

Hargreaves suggested that if Apple can solve problems in the “next month or so,” it should be able to place bulk orders for modules. Even then, however, that would allegedly translate into a delayed next gen smartphone aunch.

“If it is not able to fix the problems in that time frame, Apple may be forced to eliminate fingerprint sensing from the OLED iPhone altogether,” Hargreaves adds.

The iPhone 8 may ship later than normal (say, October or November instead of September or October as in past updates), but the Sellers Research Firm (that’s me) is 100% certain that Touch ID isn’t going to be abandoned.