Face ID could come to the iPad Pro next year

The first iPhone with Face ID hasn’t even hit stores, but we’re already getting hit with a rumor about where Apple’s new facial recognition tech might turn up next. MacRumors and 9to5Mac report that the frequently reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a note predicting that iPad Pro models released next year will include depth-sensing cameras and Apple’s Face ID tech.

That’s it for details right now. And since it’s still early to be predicting this kind of thing, Kuo’s note should probably be taken with a grain of salt — especially since the first Face ID cameras aren’t widely in use yet, so Apple has no idea how customers are going to respond.

Will the iPad Pro get a redesign, or just some more cameras?

If it’s true, Apple could go about putting Face ID on the iPad Pro in two ways: it could build the camera into the iPad’s upper bezel, beside where the selfie camera is, or this could indicate that an iPhone X-style redesign of the iPad Pro is on the way. That seems somewhat less likely — Apple already started lightly reworking the iPad’s design with the 10.5-inch model released this year, and it would likely be slow and expensive to manufacture a bezel-less tablet — though either way it opens up the question of what happens to Touch ID. Will it get replaced, or will Apple ship a device with two authentication options?

Kuo also seems to be predicting that more iPhones could adopt Face ID in 2018, but his note doesn’t seem to be as clear on this. He previously wrote that 2018 iPhones — the non-X models, that is — would gain Face ID if the tech was a success this year, and his note today reiterates that. But it’s not clear if that’s based on new information or if he’s just repeating what he said last month.