Apple could use a raised home button in iPhone 5S to shelter fingerprint scanner

There is a lot of talk about the existence of a fingerprint scanner on the upcoming iPhone, but so far there’s no confirmation of such a feature coming to the 5S. Apple Insider adds more fuel to the fire with a report that the upcoming iPhone is likely to come with a fingerprint sensor embedded into the convex, sapphire home button. According to KGI analyst Ming-Chi-Kuo, Apple is using a convex (raised) design for the home button instead of the existing concave style to ensure space for the sensor to fit in.

A fingerprint scanner coming?

Last month, iOS developer Hamza Sood posted a picture on Twitter of some lines of code from the iOS 7 beta. These lines have a lot of references to a possible fingerprint scanner on the next iPhone’s home button, where users can touch their thumbs to execute functions. To be more specific, the lines mention specifically touching the home button with the left hand’s or right hand’s thumb, and a fingerprint that changes colour during the setup process for the feature. Whether this is strictly a security feature or will also have some other utility to go along with it is still unknown.

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Kuo added that the Cupertino giant is using sapphire for its home button to keep scratches at bay, thereby protecting the embedded sensor. Such an arrangement according to the analyst is also likely to not confuse customers as to where they place their finger for scanning. 

The next iPhone is expected to make an appearance on September 10. Despite there being a new date in hand now, we are not altogether unfamiliar with the September timeline. A couple of months ago, it had been rumoured that the iPhone 5S would hit stores in September, ahead of the iPad 5 launch.