New iPhones with Force Touch in the works
The next iPhones may already be rolling down the production line, suppliers say, and they include a fancy new feature called Force Touch.
Sources "with knowledge of the matter" told Bloomberg Business that early production of the new iPhone has started and that the phones are -- as previously rumored -- enabled with Force Touch, which senses the difference between a tap and a harder press.
The feature was unveiled in March in the Apple Watch and in the trackpad of the new MacBooks.
CNET's Dan Ackerman succinctly described the function: Press to do one thing, press harder to do something else. For instance, on Apple Watch, a full press can bring up the menu of whatever app you're in.
The seemingly simple addition could be a game changer, according to one Apple analyst. As CNET reported in April, KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo told AppleInsider that Force Touch will be "the most significant change" to the iPhone's interface to date.
Force Touch could, Kuo said, be enough to bump the next model from being called iPhone 6S to getting a shiny new iPhone 7 designation, in what would otherwise be considered an off year following the massive success of the big-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple has sold over 135 million iPhones since their release in September 2014.
The new phones will maintain the current form factors -- the 4.7-inch screen of the 6 and the Plus's 5.5-inch screen. Production of the new models with Force Touch could ramp up as soon as next month, according to Bloomberg.
The anticipation comes exactly eight years after the first iPhone was introduced in 2007 and kind of changed everything about how we use our phones. We've come a long way -- and so have the little pocket computers we know and love: