- The iPhone 17 series could be the last phones with a camera control button.
- Apparently, this is because Apple has discovered that people don’t use it much
- But the source does not have much history, and there are other reasons to doubt this statement too
It is fair to say that the answers to the camera control button in the iPhone 16 series have been mixed. While some users are not convinced by this addition to the iPhone, others have found much to love the camera control button. But if you are in the last camp, you will disappoint you to know that your days could be numbered.
According to the Weibo poster, Ovo Baby Sauce Ovo (through Gsmarena), the iPhone 17 series could be the last phones with this button, since Apple has apparently told its suppliers that it will no longer ask for camera control button pieces.
Apparently, this is because Apple has discovered that iPhone owners do not use the button much, and that by eliminating this key, the company can reduce some costs, which could be especially beneficial in this new era of rates.
Still, I am not convinced. It is difficult to have the feeling of how many people really use the camera control button, with social networks that suggest that it is a true mixture of lovers and enemies, but even if not many people use it, we doubt that Apple surrenders so fast.
Even the very defamated Macbook Touch Bar lasted five years before Apple abandoned it, and it is clear that some people like the camera control.
More than just camera controls
In addition, the camera control button does more than its name suggests: it is also the entrance door to visual intelligence, which is one of Apple’s main characteristics. Now, there are other ways to access this, but they are less immediate, or require that you alter the action button, which means that you cannot use that for anything else.
At this time, visual intelligence itself may not seem like a big problem for most people, but that is largely because Apple’s intelligence is left behind the services of the rivals. If you start catching up, visual intelligence could be something that would often achieve, since it allows you to use AI to learn or translate what you are seeing.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that Apple will make such an important characteristic less easily accessible: it would be like admitting not only that these camera controls are not so useful, but either visual intelligence either.
I can’t see Apple doing that, and it is worth noting that the source that makes this statement either has much history. So, until the same claim is made by someone like Mark Gurman, who has a history of precisely filtering Apple’s information, should probably present this unlikely.