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Apple taking a page from Samsung's playbook with iPhone gesture controls?
- Apple will reportedly feature touchless gesture support and curved displays in future iPhones.
- Samsung already included both features in prior smartphones, though their implementations differ.
- Apple’s features are reportedly in development, though the company could choose to not move forward with them.
The iPhone X arguably has the deepest learning curve relative to any iPhone before it, but will that learning curve eventually deepen? The short answer is that it just might. That is according to Bloomberg, which reported that Apple is working on touchless gesture support and curved screens.
The gesture support would allow you to place your finger close to the screen and perform certain tasks. If that sounds familiar, that is because Samsung offered a version of it on the Galaxy S4 and other models with Air Gestures and Air View.
Air Gestures lets you browse through photos or scroll a webpage, while Air View worked like Apple’s 3D Touch in that it reveals additional information when your finger is over a trigger area.
That being said, Samsung’s implementation depended on a motion sensor on the phone’s bezel. As such, the features’ efficacy was all over the place. This eventually led to their exorcism from future phones. In contrast, Apple’s implementation looks to be built into the display. Reportedly it will take at least two years until consumers can give it a try.
Elsewhere, Apple is also reportedly developing iPhone displays that curve at the sides. Again, Samsung already beat Apple to the punch with the Galaxy Note Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge and succeeding flagship devices. The difference is how the curves are implemented. Whereas Samsung’s displays are curved down at the edges, Apple’s iPhone displays would reportedly gradually curve inward from top to bottom.
As with touchless gesture support, we will reportedly not see curved displays on iPhones for another two to three years away. Also, Apple’s reported development of its own Micro-LED displays could play a factor in how Apple implements both features.
That’s if we see touchless gesture support and curved displays at all. Both are reportedly in the early research and development stage, so Apple could delay or do away with them at any moment. Even so, the features show that Apple might be feeling some pressure from Android manufacturers. More phones have caught up or even surpassed iPhones in design and cameras, so your buying decision might factor in features as much as it does the ecosystem.