Apple has reduced the accuracy of the iPhone X Face ID feature to speed up production, Bloomberg reported Monday.
It's not clear how much the new specs will reduce Face ID's efficacy, but if the reporting is accurate, there could be problems recognizing changes in facial hair, glasses and other ancillary features, suggested Gerrit Schneemann, senior analyst at IHS Markit.
"That would be a real problem," he told TechNewsWorld.
The iPhone X doesn't have a fingerprint scanner, and facial recognition is the only biometric unlock mechanism for a number of iPhone features, including Apple Pay, Schneemann pointed out.
Arch-competitor Samsung, on the other hand, "uses retina or facial recognition in combination with fingerprint recognition," he noted.
If Face ID is less reliable or on par with the competition, "that would mean a win for competitors and a loss for Apple," Schneemann suggested.