Apple ditches but over one billion smartphones with fingerprint scanners will be shipped in 2018

Key Highlights

• Nearly 71% of smartphones will have fingerprint scanners in 2018.
• Samsung was the market leader in phones with fingerprint scanners in FY17.
• More than one billion fingerprint sensor enabled smartphones will be shipped in 2018.

As Apple Inc ditched a home button with a fingerprint scanner in its latest line of iPhones, three out of four smartphones will have fingerprint scanners. 

Over one billion phone will be shipped globally in 2018 with fingerprint scanners, a report by Parv Sharma of Counterpoint Research said. "More than one billion fingerprint sensor enabled smartphones will be shipped in 2018," the report said.

“In CY 2018, almost three in four smartphones will be equipped with a fingerprint sensor,” Sharma added.

The report estimated 71% of smartphones to have fingerprint sensors in 2018.

“The fingerprint sensor is likely to become the standard choice for smartphone OEMs to provide for authentication. This is driven by a rapid rise in services such as digital payments, mobile banking and the commensurate increase in the need to be able to authenticate the user securely,” the report said.

“Not only the adoption rate by users but also the advancement in the sensor integration has been rising by leaps and bounds. With changing smartphone designs to include more edge to edge displays, ultrasonic and optical fingerprint sensor technology, which can be used in with wide range of materials and even under the display screen or under water, will drive the technology forward,” Sharma said.

With its latest iPhone X launch, Apple removed the home button and fingerprint sensor from its display. The phone will now have a face scanner. However reports have come in about teething issues of the face recognition sensors.

In the matter of fingerprint scanners, Samsung stood first and Apple ranked second. “Samsung was the market leader within fingerprint enabled smartphones, contributing to 12% market share, followed by Apple and Huawei with 11% and 8% respectively, during Q2 2017,” Neil Shah, Counterpoint Research said.
 

“The penetration of fingerprint sensors in the low-mid end smartphones will increase next year due to rising scale and declining cost of the fingerprint sensor, making it one of the essential components in a smartphone,” Sharma added.