Qualcomm’s in-screen fingerprint scanner may not be ready for shipment yet according to a KGI Securities analyst. This revelation came from Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at KGI Securities who revealed that Qualcomm is planning to release the fingerprint scanner in the summer of 2018, but found out that there are a lot of issues that it needs to address before the company can think about shipping this tech. Mr. Kuo revealed that there are at least three technological challenges that Qualcomm needs to overcome before a shipment date can be confirmed for the in-screen fingerprint scanner. One of the challenges is the need to improve the scan-through ability of the screen fingerprint tech. The company also discovered that the existing tech has a slow response therefore it must find a way to make it faster.
According to Mr. Kuo, there are also other challenges that mobile phone manufacturers will face when mass producing Qualcomm’s in-screen fingerprint scanner. These obstacles could also prevent Qualcomm from confirming the tech’s launch date. The KGI analyst believes that a majority of mobile phone users don’t really mind where the fingerprint scanner is located in the gadget, whether it’s in front or at the back. This situation will present some problems for today’s cellphone makers since it will be difficult for them to adopt Qualcomm’s in-screen fingerprint tech. Additionally, this particular tech requires a thinner glass cover and a flexible OLED panel, two things that are not commonly produced today by most mobile phone manufacturers.
It was only last week when Qualcomm announced its in-screen fingerprint tech claiming that it will be the successor to their Sense ID technology. The company claims that with this tech, cellphone makers will be able to embed fingerprint scanners underneath the display. And since it utilizes ultrasonic tech to scan fingerprints, it will work even if the fingers of the user is wet. Qualcomm even had a demo unit of its tech in a Vivo phone prototype, although the company did not indicate when it will be available. However, Kuo made a disclaimer that while it offers better scan-through, its speed and response time are still two issues that require solution that Qualcomm haven’t figured out yet.