Note that hidden front cameras have been available for a while - for example, the Samsung Z Fold 3 (2021). There are some engineering tradeoffs involved with light transmission and image quality that maybe Apple doesn't find favorable.

Interestingly Chinese manufacturers seem to be the main adopters of this tech. For example, the article below has Samsung, Xiaomi, ZTE, Oppo, Vivo (actually, this may just be due to there being many more large Chinese phone manufacturers in general.) https://www.smartprix.com/bytes/under-display-camera-phones/

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tumdum_ 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

Samsung is not Chinese.

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tempestn 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Samsung is Korean.

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jajko 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Basically nobody cares about front camera performance since its never stellar and always over-ironed digital meh, especially compared to look of display that's constantly in-your-face. The photos taken with it are never taken for highest picture quality, rather just catching a person being somewhere.

The motivations of Apple to keep things as they are for so long, despite strong criticism from all over is one of business mysteries. A little middle finger to its user one may say, not big enough to stir things too much, just a bit.

	▲	theshackleford 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		> The motivations of Apple to keep things as they are for so long, despite strong criticism from all over The only relevant criticism is their sales figures and revenue numbers. Everything else is just noise.