Apple Supplier Seemingly Confirms iPhone 15 Pro Solid-State Buttons Cancellation

In a shareholder letter today, Apple supplier Cirrus Logic seemingly confirmed that iPhone 15 Pro models will no longer feature solid-state buttons.

iPhone 15 Pro Multi Purpose button Mute Switch Feature Purple
"That said, among the HPMS opportunities we have discussed, a new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as being scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to come to market as planned," the letter states. "As we have limited visibility into our customer's future plans for this product at this time, we are removing the revenue associated with this component from our internal model."

Cirrus Logic's high-performance, mixed-signal ("HPMS") segment includes haptic drivers for the Taptic Engine in iPhones. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models would have been equipped with two additional Taptic Engines that provided haptic feedback when the solid-state buttons were pressed, and Cirrus Logic hinted that it would have supplied related components for the devices in a previous shareholder letter.

"We continue to engage with a strategic customer and expect to bring a new HPMS component to market in smartphones next year," the supplier said last year.

Apple is Cirrus Logic's largest customer and accounted for 79% of its revenue in the 2022 fiscal year. In an investor note today, Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley said the supplier's comments today likely rule out solid-state buttons.

Last month, Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models would no longer have solid-state buttons as initially rumored due to "unresolved technical issues before mass production." He now expects the devices to have traditional buttons that move when pressed. Rumors suggest the Ring/Silent switch will still be be replaced with a button as previously claimed, and this button could be customizable like the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra.

Apple analyst Jeff Pu believes the solid-state buttons will likely be pushed back to iPhone 16 Pro models launching next year, but Cirrus Logic's comments today suggest it has limited knowledge of Apple's future plans at this time.

Related Roundup: iPhone 15 Pro

Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
8 months ago
Leave the buttons alone. Bring this button's design back. Life was simple!



Attachment Image
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghanwani Avatar
8 months ago
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
User 6502 Avatar
8 months ago

Guess I'm in the minority camp of people that wanted this.

I was hoping that this would enable a dual tier button press like on the Mac trackpad to support more media controls without having to use the screen (ironically a big win for glove users despite the multitude of opinions otherwise).
a solid state capacitive button like the home button on the iPhone 8 and similar won’t work at all if you are wearing gloves. It doesn’t matter how hard you press it, it just won’t be triggered. How can it possibly be ‘a win’ for gloves users?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
8 months ago

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.
Alas, it's only "unresolved technical issues" that prevailed, according to Kuo, not opposition to solid state buttons as such.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DeLaSoul Avatar
8 months ago
Real buttons yeah! It should have a physical scroll wheel too, like the original iPod!!1 :)
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
User 6502 Avatar
8 months ago

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.
I suspect they’ll try again next year. My main concern is however the mute switch that apparently won’t be a switch anymore. This is a terrible downgrade and will have lost one of the differentiating features making it better than the average android phone.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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