The new Apple iPhone will be using fingerprint technology for authentication, a new major technology that could give Silicon Valley a leap in big markets.
The high-end smartphone may have bigger storage room, faster chip, improved camera abilities, longer battery life, and the most anticipated fingerprint technology and promises from Apple to provide easy yet secured authentication of users' identities.
Maynard Um, an analyst for Wells Fargo told USA Today, “Everyone is looking at what this new phone can do, and one of the key things is fingerprint authentication. People are underestimating what this technology can do.”
At first, iPhone will likely have the fingerprint technology close to the home button, as that is the first part of the screen users touch when they open their phones. After the verification of the identity through fingerprinting, the full display will automatically show.
Identifying users via fingerprinting is much safer compared to PINs and patterns, thus this technology could help Apple expand in areas like enterprise computing and mobile payments, which demand the highest level of security, said Um and others.
David Marcus, president of Paypal, said, "Within the next two years the vast majority of high-end smartphones will have biometrics and mainly fingerprint logins. It's going to be very useful for payments."
Paypal helped launch the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance which is developing common, open norms for the use of fingerprints and other biometrics to recognize users.
Technologies like those may make smartphones into a truly safe way to pay, says UM. With the success of the fingerprint technology, Sebastian Taveau – chief technology officer of Validity Sensor -- said that Banks and other payment companies may consider developing apps for iPhone.
Validity Sensors is one of the few independent fingerprint authentication companies aside from Authentec, which was acquired by Apple in 2012 for $356 million.
