Future iOS Device Will Have Discreet Finger Print Sensor

According on an article by Sinead Carew posted on Reuters, Apple is going to buy Authentec to secure technologies that will enable finger print scanning on the next iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

The Cupertino based Company is not the first smartphone maker to use the technology. Rival company Motorola already have the same functionality on the ATRIX 4G, while Fujitsu have a functioning Tegra 3 ICS prototype with finger print scanner.

 Apple was buying a rich portfolio of patents from AuthenTec that could help it dominate mobile payments.

Not only that the $356 million purchase gives Apple the technology that will give secure user authentication to its mobile device. It also gives them exclusive rights to the core technology/patnets that drives it. This will give other smartphone maker a hard time implementing secure authentication for mobile payments whereas passwords nor pins may not be enough. Although APPL remains mum about it,  the Passbook feature that will debut on iOS 6 is a strong indication that they are after all into developing a secure NFC mobile payment system where your phone can replace your ATMs or Credit Cards.

Apple to Develop a Discreet Finger Print Sensor

Tim Cook’s company could just buy AuthenTec’s  AES2750 sensors and put it on their mobile device, like what Motorola and Fujitsi did, but doing so is not so Apple. It will make way for a slit on the mobile device as Josh Franklin suggest on this article which I think gives a not so clean design . If we recall  Steve Jobs’ speech on his iPad announcement last 2010.

It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.

Looking at AuthenTec’s  AES2750 sensor specs published on this page, other than having the best scanning and encryption technology, the device offer low power consumption and more importantly the beveled package contour package allows in-glass integration. I think Apple will

place the sensor under the front glass keeping the iPhone’s surface as smooth as it is today. It will be barely noticeable on back of the black iPhones.

A Theft-proof iPhone

Other than NFC applications, another benefit of implementing AuthenTec’s technology is that our future iPhone may become Theft-proof. Other features that is currently available to the AEX2750 sensor is Hybrid, on-chip matching, Encrypted SPI system interface, and On-chip encryption of enrolled fingerprint templates and user credentials. These functionality may not prevent others from steeling your phone, but since your fingerprint data is encypted to the chip, no one will be able to use the phone.

Bio-metrics Adaption

Finally, I think this Biometric authentication technology will be available to the iPhone initially then applied to the iPad, and iPod Touch later on. This will allow Apple give more value to its flagship mobile phone, while giving more features to iPad, and the iPod Touch as it applies “Price Umbrella Protection” from the competitors.

So, when the iPhone X have bio-metrics and more advanced technoloy, Apple can give the iPod Touch a 7″ inch display (aka iPad Mini), and perhaps 802.11 ac to the iPad.

Of course, these are just my predictions based on facts, and as a result of being an Apple fanboy.

Are you excited with bio-metrics on our future iPhones? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.