Apple Supplier Seemingly Confirms iPhone 15 Pro Solid-State Buttons Cancellation

In a shareholder letter today, Apple supplier Cirrus Logic seemingly confirmed that iPhone 15 Pro models will no longer feature solid-state buttons.

“That said, among the HPMS opportunities we have discussed, a new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as being scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to come to market as planned,” the letter states. “As we have limited visibility into our customer’s future plans for this product at this time, we are removing the revenue associated with this component from our internal model.”

HPMS refers to Cirrus Logic’s high-performance, mixed-signal chips, which includes haptic drivers for the Taptic Engine in iPhones. In a shareholder letter last November, the Texas-based company said it had continued to “engage with a strategic customer” and expected to “bring a new HPMS component to market in smartphones next year.” Apple is Cirrus Logic’s largest customer and accounted for 79% of its revenue in the 2022 fiscal year.

In an investor note today, Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O’Malley said Cirrus Logic’s aforementioned comments likely refer to the solid-state buttons. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo initially said iPhone 15 Pro models would have been equipped with two additional Taptic Engines that provided haptic feedback when the solid-state buttons were pressed, and Cirrus Logic likely would have provided related components.

Last month, Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models would no longer have solid-state buttons as initially rumored due to “unresolved technical issues before mass production.” He now expects the devices to have traditional buttons that move when pressed. Rumors suggest the Ring/Silent switch will still be be replaced with a button as previously claimed, and this button could be customizable like the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra.

Apple analyst Jeff Pu believes the solid-state buttons will likely be pushed back to iPhone 16 Pro models launching next year, but Cirrus Logic’s comments today suggest that the supplier has no knowledge of these plans as of yet.