Mobile Payments, Security To Drive Fingerprint Sensor Market To 1.6 Billion Units by 2020, Says IHS

Fingerprint sensors are an expected feature in smartphones, driven by biometric security and mobile payments, said an IHS report Monday. The sensors are also being used more in tablets and notebook PCs, said IHS. The iPhone leads the segment in fingerprint sensors, with 499 million shipped in 2015, up from 316 million in 2014, said IHS. Growth will continue each year until 2020 when fingerprint sensor shipments will peak at 1.6 billion units, it said. The highest revenue growth will be in the short term “as the market becomes more competitive and price erosion occurs," said analyst Jamie Fox. Apple, which acquired fingerprint-sensor maker AuthenTec in 2012, led the fingerprint sensor market in 2015 on the popularity of the iPhone 6s and iPads, said Fox. Sweden-based Fingerprint Cards, supplier to customers in China and elsewhere, tied Samsung supplier Synaptics in unit shipments last year but ranked second behind AuthenTec in revenue at $316 million, said the research firm. “FPC reacted very quickly” to the industry trend away from swipe sensors, said Fox. The current market for fingerprint sensors relies on capacitive sensors, but Qualcomm will soon lead a transition to ultrasonic sensors that are “even more resistant to user impersonation,” said Fox. InvenSense is expected to introduce its own line of ultrasonic fingerprint sensors in 2017, Fox said.