“Biometric smartphones are expected to become mainstream next year as leading handset makers follow the lead of Apple Inc. into fingerprint recognition technology, an Ericsson report on consumer trends showed on Wednesday,” Olof Swahnberg reports for Reuters.
“In September, Apple launched its iPhone 5S which was the first smartphone with a sensor to recognize fingerprints, improving security and ease of use,” Swahnberg reports. “‘A total of 74 percent believe that biometric smartphones will become mainstream in 2014,’ Ericsson, the world’s biggest mobile network maker, wrote in the report.'”
Swahnberg reports, “Ericsson interviewed over 100,000 people in over 40 countries as part of the survey.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s much more difficult than Apple makes it look. As usual, the followers’ knockoffs won’t work anywhere as well as iPhone 5s’ Touch ID.
eventually all competitors will get it right but in the end the pointers they copied it from Apple, or at least they waited for Apple to bring it to market and then they took the risk. typical
This slapstick comedy of errors ought to be fun to watch! And how many of them will leave the fingerprints collected in the open or send them directly to the NSA. It’s gonna be fun!
To anyone worried about a fingerprint ID device sending your fingerprint to the NSA,,,,,,, take a breath. Unless you spend your day wearing latex gloves, you leave fingerprints all over the place. Also, if you have ever been in jail, in the military, used a bank (that takes fingerprints) etc, then they already have had your prints for a while.
Just an FYI.
But if you haven’t done any of those things, NOW the NSA will have your fingerprints!
Good point eldernorm: “To anyone worried about a fingerprint ID device sending your fingerprint to the NSA,,,,,,, take a breath.”
and you could add a lot of people that travel overseas that have biometrics data taken.
However there are some he he he, that should be enjoying that breath while it lasts, because you see it works both ways. Nothing like getting a few irate hackers getting the NSA’s fingerprints. Oh the things they will do with that info, and the NSA has been doing all the ground work collecting that data. Oh yes, be afraid NSA, be very very afraid. Oh wait, you already are.
“‘A total of 74 percent believe that biometric smartphones will become mainstream in 2014″
As it comes as standard on the best selling smartphone model, I would have thought that it’s already mainstream, just as 64 bit is already mainstream too.
I assume that what the author means is that the ‘me too’ manufacturers will try to copy this technology in 2014.
How many of these readers will work as well as Apple iTouch? 😛
They won’t need to work as well. So long as their crappy implementation of that feature can be ticked on a check box when doing a comparison, the sort of customer who buys them will think it must be the same thing.
Then when they discover it doesn’t work satisfactorily, the story they spread will be that all fingerprint sensors are rubbish – just as many who bought PC laptops insist that all trackpads must be rubbish, despite the fact that Apple has been fitting excellent trackpads to their laptops for more than 15 years.
Every single time, the filthy pigs come rushing to our trough!
And I plan to lose 30 pounds next year. Those people in all the weight loss commercials say it was so easy!
Oh Samsung, this is harder than you think and Apple took the time to buy AuthenTec to control the technology that you will try to ripoff again.
So Samsung’s phones will not have Apple’s fingerprint recognition technology.
And Samsung’s phones will not be 64-bit.
Or iTunes … or several billion dollar server farms all around the world … or free apps and upgrades like iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
So, your crap is a little cheaper. Where is your value? Why would anyone go with your Android crap? Aren’t you thinking about leaving the Android OS.
RIMM once was a big player in the smart phone market too!
Apple broke Biometric support for Fingerprint scanners with the Mavericks release for those of us who own the Eikon scanners AuthenTec sold prior to the Apple buyout. More than a little ironic that Apple buys just about the only company in this market with good Mac software and shuts it down and then breaks the software support in the OS.
Apple could fix this in no time if they simply wanted to. The Apple of the Tim Cook era gives not a damn about the Macintosh and it’s users.
If so, that it unfortunate. Please let Apple know and, if necessary, work with others to gather a critical mass of concerned consumers to get Apple’s attention.
I hope Apple has a lot of patents in place for their Touch ID sensor so they don’t get ripped off like they usually do. I’m sure Samsung will be able to reverse-engineer it physically because that’s how they do everything.
Sounds good, but I am assuming that Authentek is the one that got the original patents and now Apple owned those.
Just a thought.
This is technology I can do without.
I read that headline as:
“Android Consumers expect handset makers to steal Apple’s fingerprint recognition tech in 2014”
The iPhone 5s was not the first smartphone with a fingerprint sensor. There have been a few others. However, the 5s is the first smartphone with a reliable, elegant and extremely secure solution.
That is what separates Apple from the their competition, they actually think about the solution. Where other companies simply added a sensor on their phones, Apple took the time to think about where it would be most convenient and bought the technology so it could be reengineered to fit into the home button. Not only that, they designed their own SoC so that the sensor could be hardwired to it and data stored securely away.
If the fingerprint scanners need 64bit to work reliably, than Android makers are in real trouble. Notice if. Apple said the reason for the scanner was to get the 50% of people who don’t use password protection to start using it. This could make iPhones unwanted by petty thieves. Those who just want them for free calls to other countries. A big reason phones are stolen. Police would love this and tell people not to buy Androids. It does not look like Android will have 64 bit any time soon.