The ongoing “will/won’t it” saga of supposedly solid-state volume buttons on the iPhone 15 Pro is coming to an end. We recently heard rumors from multiple sources that Apple was canceling the project and going back to normal clickable buttons on its next-gen devices.
Today, new information almost confirms it. Apple supplier Cirrus Logic can’t simply disclose that Apple was its customer for this technology, as confidentiality agreements prevent it from doing so. At the same time, it has to keep investors informed of any milestones or setbacks, and the latter is exactly what the company explains in a new letter to shareholders.
“A new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to hit the market as expected” is the exact quote from the letter, and the product in question was of the HPMS variety.
HPMS stands for “high-performance, mixed-signal,” a segment that, according to Cirrus Logic, includes the touch drivers for Apple’s Taptic Engine in iPhones. If the introduction of solid-state buttons hadn’t been canceled by Apple, the iPhone 15 Pro would ship with two additional Taptic Engines to provide the tactile feedback for the mock buttons.
In a previous letter to shareholders, Cirrus Logic has strongly suggested that it is the supplier of these, without saying so openly of course. Apple is Cirrus Logic’s largest customer, accounting for 78% of its revenue in fiscal 2022.
According to longtime purveyor of Apple-related leaks and rumors Ming-chi Kuo, the iPhone 15 Pro won’t have solid-state buttons after all due to “unresolved technical issues before mass production,” whatever that means. .
While the volume buttons will remain of the regular variety, the iPhone 15 Pro is still expected to debut the Action button to replace the ring/mute switch. This Action button will be fully customizable, like on the Apple Watch Ultra.
Apple may not have given up on the idea of solid-state volume buttons altogether, according to analyst Jeff Pu, who thinks the company will simply push the introduction of the technology to next year and aim to debut it in the iPhone 16 Pro. .
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