The fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S will make biometrics commonplace in a single device release.
Although there has been as much negative press as there has been positive regarding the release of the latest smartphone gadgets from Apple, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, it is the new feature of the fingerprint scanner in the 5S that is gaining the most attention from the media.
This single new feature could change the way we think about how everyday technology functions.
The fingerprint scanner is being marketed as this gadget’s security upgrade, but it could actually represent a great deal more. It is catapulting biometrics into the mainstream, so that they will be incorporated into the workplace, events, real world shopping, and mobile commerce. Until just recently, this sector had been receiving attention from only the fringe of the industry.
Now, in the release of a single gadget, the use of biometrics is about to become commonplace.
The executives at Apple explained that the Touch ID technology embedded in these gadgets as a part of the iPhone 5S home button will only be providing users with fingerprint access to the device itself as well as the manufacturer’s own online stores, analysts have said that this release is going to have a much broader effect.
This type of technology, referred to as biometrics, will likely become central to wider adoption in other gadgets and devices, say analysts. According to Alan Goode, the managing director of the U.K. based Goode Intelligence research consultancy, “It really propels biometrics into the mainstream.”
The senior vice president of design at Apple, Jonathan Ive, has also dropped hints as to the future of the technology that is available in this latest of gadgets from the tech giant. He stated that “Touch ID defines the next step of how you use your iPhone,” and that “making something as important as security so effortless and so simple.”
Though there has already been criticism to the way that the fingerprint technology works in these latest gadgets, with complaints such as the issue of sweat interfering with its function, it is still giving Apple an edge for the moment, as it is the only one with this technology on the current market. That edge may, however, be short lived, as other manufacturers, such as Microsoft, are already building fingerprint recognition into their own latest releases. In Microsoft’s case, that tech is being worked into the latest Windows 8 update. It is expected that Android won’t be long to follow.
