Guo Minghao: Apple will update Face ID and iPhone antenna design next year

On November 10, 2018, analyst Guo Minghao released an investor forecast report related to the new iPhone antenna technology. He predicted that Apple will replace the antenna material and design, and will add a new Face ID to the iPhone released in 2019.

 

In the report, Guo Minghao mentioned the liquid crystal polymer LCP antenna technology that Apple used on iPhone X. The production process of such an antenna is also complicated, and there are fewer suppliers that can be produced. In the face of this situation, Apple’s control over the price is also limited. Faced with this situation, Apple will probably add a polyimide (MPI) technology antenna to the new iPhone released next year.

MPI antennas are not as “fragile” as LCP antennas, and production costs are lower than LCP. And because production requirements are lower than LCP, there are five suppliers that offer MPI antennas, more than LCP. In this case, when Apple talks with suppliers about the price, the space will be larger than before, and the cost has the opportunity to be controlled.

Although there are points of view, LCP is better than MPI antenna in performance stability and power consumption control. However, some analysts pointed out that the performance of the MPI antenna is also improving, and the performance gap between the two will not be too large.

 

In this regard, Guo Mingxi also indicated that Apple’s replacement should not have much impact. Instead, he is more optimistic about the MPI antenna in the report, thinking that this antenna will become the mainstream antenna for future iPhone models.

He expects that the 2019 iPhone will use a combination of four MPI antennas and two LCP antennas to replace the current six LCP antennas.

 

In addition to the antenna, Guo Minghao expects Apple to update Face ID. The update will improve the iPhone’s recognition ability in the dark environment. The new version of Face ID will appear in the new iPhone released next year.