Apple's vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak recently spoke with the UK's Daily Express about the future of its biometric authentication systems, noting that while Face ID will be expanded to more devices over time, Touch ID will "continue to have a role" for the foreseeable future.
"Certainly, we'll continue to put it on more devices but also Touch ID will continue to have a role - it's a great technology on our iPad lineup and we don't see it going away anytime soon," said Joswiak.
While the latest iPad Pro models are equipped with the more-expensive Face ID system, lower-end iPad, iPad Air, and iPad mini models still have Touch ID home buttons to keep costs down, and that will likely remain the case for years. Touch ID is also built into recent MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models.
As for the iPhone, Apple continues to sell older iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models with Touch ID, but it has not introduced a new iPhone with fingerprint authentication since 2017. The upcoming iPhone 11 models are expected to stick with Face ID, which Apple says has been made 30 percent faster in iOS 13.
Looking ahead, multiple reports have claimed that Apple plans to release an iPhone with both Face ID and an under-display fingerprint scanner in 2020 or 2021. The under-display option could certainly be given a new name, however, to distinguish it from traditional Touch ID with a home button.
