iPhone 6 likely to sport barometer & air pressure sensors to measure altitude, weather
Besides a larger display and redesigned metal body, details regarding which features the next-generation iPhone models will pack have been light. However, it appears that the new models could include a new sensor: a barometer.
Context & Ripple Effects
This report lands deep in the pre-launch rumor window for Apple's next iPhone: the barometer claim arrives bundled with other unconfirmed expectations — a larger display and a redesigned metal body — none of which Apple has acknowledged. As of June 18, 2014, everything here is sourcing-level chatter ahead of an expected fall refresh.
What gives the item weight despite being a single outlet's report is its travel: eight outlets — among them Business Insider, MacRumors, BGR, SlashGear, and Ubergizmo — carried the same sensor story on or about the same day. That breadth is a measure of how tightly parsed the next iPhone's spec sheet already is before Apple has said a word about it.
First-order effects
- If the report proves accurate, iOS developers would gain a pressure-derived altitude signal at launch — fitness, navigation, and weather apps could read elevation without relying on GPS alone.
- Suppliers of MEMS pressure sensors gain a shot at the most-watched design slot in consumer electronics heading into the fall production ramp.
Second-order effects
- Every sensor Apple standardizes resets the baseline Android flagships are measured against, so rivals' upcoming hardware faces pressure to match barometer-class sensing as table stakes.
- Once the same barometer ships on tens of millions of handsets, weather and fitness apps differentiate less on data access and more on who interprets the readings best.
Third-order effects
- A barometer joins the accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS in pushing the smartphone toward being an always-on environmental instrument — which in turn expands the set of location-adjacent signals (like precise indoor elevation) that OS-level privacy permissions have to account for.
The trend: Flagship phone differentiation is drifting from displays and radios toward layered environmental-sensing hardware that feeds contextual software.