It will be both very exciting and surprising to see exactly what Samsung does with its soon-to-be newest flagship, the Galaxy S5. I say this because so little is known about the actual device other than a bunch of rumors that, many times, tend to contradict each other. For Instance, how will they handle the design, what materials will they use, what processor will be inside (brand, number of cores, and bits), what camera improvements will be included, display resolution and type, and certainly one of much debate…fingerprint or iris scanning.
Sources at DigiTimes are saying that Samsung will indeed put a fingerprint scanner on its smartphones sometime in 2014, but did not say if the Galaxy S5 would make the cut. Fingerprint scanners are in great demand and only a few companies actually develop and make the sensors, with the quality Samsung needs and dependability that Samsung is looking to achieve.
Apple kicked off this obsession when they introduced the scanner on their iPhone 5s, but they were supplied from AuthenTec, a company that Apple acquired for just that purpose. HTC jumped on board by adding a fingerprint scanner on their latest HTC One max device and used scanners made by Validity Sensors, which has since been acquired by Synaptics.
Samsung is reportedly planning on adopting sensors made by Validity and LG was looking to the Swedish-based company, FingerPrint Cards (FPCs). China based companies are also looking for suppliers for their upcoming high-end smartphones, but the selection of vendors is limited and the supply demand will be high with an estimated 30-percent of China’s high-end smartphones in 2014 using a fingerprint scanner.
This has been a real dilemma with Samsung – it seems quite clear that they would like to use some kind of eye scanning technology, in conjunction with their many “eyeball watching” techniques that they already use on their smartphones – they have certainly filed enough patents and worked with enough companies for using the Iris Scanning. It just may be that the technology just is not proven enough yet, but is it really necessary to use a fingerprint scanner in 2014 and 2015, then abandon it for the eye scanner? Like I pointed out earlier, it will be a very interesting year for smartphones.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page if you would rather have a fingerprint scanner, iris scanner, or no scanner on your next Samsung or any brand smartphone. Do you see it as a gimmick or with real value as electronic “Wallets” appear and more security is needed for purchases.