'Completely false': Apple denies report about issues with the iPhone X facial recognition camera
- Apple's iPhone X is rumored to be difficult to manufacture, with a lot of reports pointing to production problems with the front-facing depth-sensing camera.
- A report on Wednesday from Bloomberg suggested that Apple had allowed its suppliers to "reduce the accuracy of the face-recognition technology" to help make enough iPhone X units.
- Apple pushed back on the report, calling that detail "completely false."
Apple's most advanced iPhone, the iPhone X, goes up for pre-order on Friday. A report from Bloomberg on Wednesday suggested that a key feature on the iPhone X may have been made less accurate to help factories produce the delicate, complicated True Depth camera on the front of the device.
But Apple pushed back on the report in strong language on Wednesday.
"Customer excitement for iPhone X and Face ID has been incredible, and we can't wait for customers to get their hands on it starting Friday, November 3. Face ID is a powerful and secure authentication system that's incredibly easy and intuitive to use," an Apple representative told Business Insider. "The quality and accuracy of Face ID haven't changed. It continues to be 1 in a million probability of a random person unlocking your iPhone with Face ID."
"Bloomberg's claim that Apple has reduced the accuracy spec for Face ID is completely false and we expect Face ID to be the new gold standard for facial authentication," the representative continued.
The specific claim that Apple is disputing is that Apple told its factory partners that it could "reduce the accuracy of the face-recognition technology to make it easier to manufacture," from the Bloomberg story.
Several other reports have suggested that Apple's iPhone X is proving difficult to manufacture. The iPhone X will retail for $999 or more and has several new features, including a next-generation OLED screen and the 3D-sensing True Depth camera.
But those new features come with additional complexity, which makes them difficult to produce at scale. Recently, the KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple would only ship between two and three million iPhone X units before launch.