25 Jun Fingerprint Scanners for Mobiles On the Rise

Entering a PIN every time you reach for your phone has always been troublesome.

While it is essential to have security on your phone the PIN method can be awkward and time consuming.

Fingerprint Scanners for Mobiles

Apple brought attention to fingerprint scanning with the iPhone 5S and the big players have been following close behind. We now see fingerprint scanners in popular handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edges, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the HTC One M9+ (Chinese version) and the Huawei Mate 7.

Interestingly, Apple is able to embed the fingerprint scanner into the home button on the front of the handset, while many other brands are forced to place the scanner on the back of the phone. You could argue that picking up the phone allows for a finger to be placed on the back of the handset however scanners will feel more natural being on either the front or side. Ultimately, a scanner integrated into the screen would be ideal.

Prices of scanners are getting cheaper and there is greater software support from mobile operating systems, in particular new improvements in Android M. This means that developers can more easily create apps that utilise the fingerprint scanner.

Two scanner companies Synaptics and Fingerprint Cards are growing at a rapid rate. Synaptics provides scanners for the Samsung S6 and S6 Edge while Fingerprint Cards provide scanners to Huawei and Oppo.

“The market is hot, and the adoption rate across a broader range of products will grow faster now,” Anthony Gioeli, Synaptics Biometrics Business Unit.

Google has helped drive recent demand for this hardware with their addition of native fingerprint scanner support in Android M. A wide range of Android supported brands will now be seeking fingerprint scanners.

Other than for security, the need for fingerprint scanners is being driven by mobile payments. Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay will all benefit from fingerprint scanners in handsets making mobile transactions fast and secure.

Are you using a fingerprint scanner on your mobile? Please share your comments on this topic.