Fingerprint scanning on handsets has become big ever since the iPhone 5s, with a range of companies adopting it. We’ve got big names like Samsung or Huawei, but also smaller companies from China or India. This year, expectations are that Chinese vendors will ship over 50 million Android phones with fingerprint scanners.
Sources at the Taiwanese IC backend service companies were quoted on that matter. Vendors of Android phones, like Samsung have opted for swipe sensors, compared to the Apple touch sensor. A sliding fingerprint scanner is priced at around 3 to 5 dollars a piece, compared to the 8-10 dollars paid for one that resembles Apple’s. However, the prices of touch sensors are expected to drop to $4, so competition will increase.
Theoretically such technological advances are good, but when it comes to actual use, fingerprint scanning not done right may pose threats to the user’s security. It’s important to note that only big companies use their scanners for payments, while smaller phone makers only use the fingerprint authentication for unlocking the screen.
via Digitimes
