It could be years before Face ID actually makes its way to desktop Macs

Every week, Mark Gurman at Bloomberg does a deep dive into everything Apple-related, and this week was mostly about Apple’s delayed return to on-campus work. The extended version of the newsletter also has a new prediction on the future of Face ID on desktop Macs. Gurman is saying it will arrive in the next “couple of years.”

Gurman’s take is that Apple’s eventual goal is to put Face ID into every one of its products. That includes devices like the iPhone SE that currently only has Touch ID. Currently, Touch ID is still important as it’s a cheaper biometric alternative for Apple’s affordable ranges.

The reason Gurman thinks it will change? Augmented Reality, made possible by the depth information from the Face ID sensors. He thinks this won’t happen until the next major redesign of the iMac and this won’t be for another couple of years.

With Face ID in every device, how will Apple differentiate between the premium and affordable ranges? Well, he reckons that Apple will put cameras embedded in the screen on the higher-priced models. The iPhone SE/iPad Air ranges will still continue to have notches in the screen to hold their camera modules.

Will Face ID come to the MacBook range? Well, that might take longer, if at all, because of the difficulty of putting the necessary sensors into the thinner screens.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.