You might recall Samsung reportedly acquired a company known as Fingerprint Cards AB, a manufacturer of touch fingerprint sensors for smartphones. The deal was made known to the public through Fingerprint Cards AB’s press release which stated that Samsung would purchase the company for an astonishing $650 million. However, the deal never went through and the press release was tossed away leaving Samsung to use their Synaptics sensor but that wasn’t the end of the road for Fingerprint Cards AB. Instead, Fingerprint Cards AB is doing massive deals and is present in several big name manufacturers within the market right now.
When it comes to smartphone security there’s been a big push in manufacturers including a physical fingerprint scanner, which is able to read and recognize your personal fingerprint and in return, the smartphone is able to unlock and so on. This is a step-up from other security measures that lock consumers handsets in the past and it’s quickly becoming more of a standard feature. As mentioned, Samsung was reportedly purchasing Fingerprint Cards AB but the press release was retracted though the company is not hurting, in fact, Fingerprint Cards AB is prospering with several manufacturers using their sensors for their line of handsets.
Through Fingerprints Cards AB and Precise Biometrics, a Swedish based company that provides the fingerprint sensors with recognition software, a number of smartphone handsets such as the OnePlus 2, Huawei Mate S, LG V10, Oppo R7 Plus and the two new Nexus devices, are using the sensor. While there’s always potential in a manufacturer coming in and sweeping up Fingerprint Cards AB, this is one company that Samsung likely regrets not going through with the purchase.
Regardless of the new popularity for Fingerprint Cards AB there may still be stiff competition against Apple’s Touch ID which is now standard in their latest iPhone lineup. In fact, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside revealed the reason their Nexus 6 didn’t include a fingerprint sensor was the fact that Authentec was purchased by Apple. According to Dennis Woodside, Authentec was the best supplier for fingerprint sensors at the time and since it was acquired by Apple, Motorola decided to leave out any type of sensor.