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Comment by echelon_musk | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to see the 2025 keep the same form factor and button as the 2020 and the 2022.

I've been close to upgrading my 2nd gen to a 3rd gen but I think I will hold off until the 4th gen is released. Even if the new model is too big for my taste, second hand 3rd gens should be a bit cheaper.

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Unfortunately it's very likely the button will be gone in favor of Face ID and it's going to use the case design of a previous model so it will get bigger. It's going to suck to operate when wearing a helmet and glasses.

They could somewhat sidestep this problem if they did what some Android phones do and put a fingerprint sensor into the power button. Not that I think they will do that, but in a different world, they could.

They did this on some of the iPads. Even with Face ID, I think having a power button sensor is nice for people who often have their face covered and want an alternative biometric auth method.

> but in a different world, they could.

The issue is margins.

That is an additional SKU to manage, and Apple is extremely ruthless in minimizing redundant components, as this was a major reason Apple had horrid margin in the 1990s.

All manufacturers are moving away from buttons for that reason - from automotive to consumer electronics.

The same money spent on a dedicated SKU for buttons can be spent on a better optimized OLED display to reduce lag.

I am glad that Toyota is not one of those all automotive manufacturers. I have Yaris 2023 model and it has physical buttons for everything.

I doubt the button and the separate form factor are going to stick around. Right now they need a separate manufacturing pipeline only for the low-end phone, moving everything onto their unified platform probably makes a lot of financial sense, especially at Apple scale.

Or perhaps at Apple scale, you can make more money with two manufacturing pipelines rather than one. Because of country issues, it seems to me if anything they need to run more than one manufacturing track anyway.

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