There have been many swings in the pendulum when it comes to rumours of the iPhone 15 Pro, and the possibility of it not having physical buttons. The most recent rumour saw analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predict that, due to technical issues, Apple will be reverting to a more traditional two-button setup for volume adjustment, while turning the mute switch into a button akin to the action button on the Watch Ultra. Now, it looks like a supplier to the iPhone maker is corroborating this somewhat, based on claims to its shareholders.
Said supplier, Cirrus Logic, said in a letter to shareholders that “among the HPMS opportunities we have discussed, a new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as being scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to come to market as planned”. This is referring to the company’s high-performance, mixed signal product line, which includes haptic drivers. This is likely the component that Apple intended to use in its Taptic Engine volume rocker on the iPhone 15 Pro.
With the capacitive volume rocker’s fate being pretty much sealed for this year, there is still the action button for those looking forward to something new coming with the iPhone 15 Pro. Despite the rapidly swinging rumours surrounding the volume buttons, the change from the mute switch to a single button has appeared consistent so far. All that being said, there’s always a chance that Apple will get the capacitive volume rocker back for next year’s batch of iPhones.
(Source: Cirrus Logic [PDF])
