Over a billion smartphones featuring fingerprint sensors will ship in 2018, with the devices comprising three quarters of all smartphones on the market, according to a new market forecast from Counterpoint.
In a statement announcing the prediction and other market research, the firm attributed the growth to “a rapid rise” in mobile payments and banking, which demand strong user authentication. Technological advancements are also helping things along, with Counterpoint Research Associate Parv Sharma asserting that “ultrasonic and optical fingerprint sensor technology, which can be used in with wide range of materials and even under the display screen or under water, will drive the technology forward.”
The forecast appears to undercut excitement over Apple’s Face ID system for the forthcoming iPhone X, which abandons the iPhone’s traditional fingerprint scanning system for a user authentication system based on infrared facial recognition. The feature’s announcement already appears to have had an impact on a mobile industry keen to respond to Apple’s leadership, but Counterpoint insists that fingerprint sensors are “likely to become the standard choice for smartphone OEMs to provide for authentication.”
Taking a more detailed look at the mobile biometrics landscape, Samsung, Apple, and Huawei had the highest marketshare with respect to fingerprint sensor-enabled smartphones in Q2 of this year, at 12 percent, 11 percent, and eight percent, respectively. As for suppliers, Counterpoint Associate Director Tarun Pathak says that Fingerprint Cards, Synaptics, and Goodix together account for over half of the market’s smartphone sensors, but “Qualcomm, eGIS and Silead are positioned to grow with more design wins in coming quarters.”
Further details can be found in Counterpoint’s full report, “Smartphone Fingerprint Sensor Report CY2017Q2”.
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(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)
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