The iPhone 5c, which is full of the sense of the times, has been knocked out by Apple and will be discontinued.

Recently, Apple updated its "Vintage and obsolete products", which added Apple's first color mobile phone, the iPhone 5c, which means that this model will only receive limited technical support.

The mobile phone has been eliminated, but there is an old function that was intentionally "restarted" by Apple-Touch ID.

One

Five color schemes, plastic body and small screen, can be regarded as the whole impression of the technology gentleman on the iPhone 5c.

There is a saying that there are not many domestic fruit fans who like the 5c. In fact, the iPhone 5c has been "unlucky" since its launch.

When it was released in 213, the price of 16GB was as high as 4,488 yuan, which made many people stop. It was only cheaper than the main model iPhone 5s in 8 yuan, which is not the point. In that year, almost all consumers were pursuing 5s "local gold" color matching.

In addition, the previous iPhone were all made of glass and metal, which was very suitable for Apple's "advanced" and "textured" positioning, and the plastic 5c was naturally awkward to position, especially in China, its domestic popularity and sales volume were not satisfactory.

The sudden "obsolescence" has made most consumers turn their attention to this "small transparency" that has been ignored from birth to shelf.

In fact, the iPhone 5c also carries many meanings. It is not only Apple's first plastic phone, but also unlocks Apple's innovation in mobile phone color matching. It is also it, as the first "cheap iPhone", which officially opened the multi-line play of Apple's mobile phone. In the past, Apple only released one iPhone with different memory, and the difference in pricing was only expensive and more expensive. The appearance of the iPhone 5c allowed more "sinking" consumers to enjoy the iPhone.

Second

The iPhone 5c has gone to history, but the Touch ID it uses shows signs of regression.

According to foreign media reports, Apple applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office for a patent entitled "Short-wave infrared optical imaging through the display screen of electronic equipment", and it has passed the examination.

In this patent, Apple proposed a fingerprint identification method using short-wave infrared optical imaging, which can be regarded as Apple's off-screen Touch ID technology.

This new patent indicates that the Touch ID of iPhone will return to iPhone, but this does not mean that the physical buttons of Home will be restored. Instead, Apple may use the off-screen infrared imaging system to design the Touch ID, thus eliminating the need to introduce the Home button.

Perhaps because of this year's epidemic, many people can only wear masks to go out, and it is difficult to display their Face ID, which finally "inspired" Apple to return to fingerprints as the fastest unlocking method.

Many apple fans are undoubtedly very happy about the decision to restart Touch ID, because the return of this function will bring many benefits to Apple users. By then, not only can fingerprints unlock the screen, but also fingerprint payment and other functions can be realized on Apple phones.

This also released a very important signal. After four years' absence, Apple turned its attention back to the research of off-screen fingerprints.

On the one hand, it is because Face ID has reached a bottleneck. The possibility of further reduction of components is low, the off-screen camera is more difficult to achieve than the off-screen fingerprint, and the prospect AR does not bring explosive application space.

On the other hand, the absolute strength gap between Apple and Android manufacturers has narrowed. In the absence of Apple in recent years, Android has achieved mass production of optical fingerprints, and fingerprint identification has become the mainstream unlocking scheme in the market. It can be seen in the future that the research and development of off-screen cameras will be much more difficult than off-screen fingerprints, which also urges Apple to tighten its conversion strategy.

However, there are also voices saying that restarting Touch ID will change Apple from a "creator" to a "follower" once again, and it will make people question Apple's R&D ability.