The second half of this year has been exciting for all vendors of biometric technology, with the mainstream media latching on to the idea of strong authentication after the high-profile launch of Apple’s Touch ID – the fingerprint sensor that locks the iPhone 5S. Few can claim to have had such a positive summer and autumn in 2013 as Fingerprint Cards AB (FPC), however. After directly benefiting in the stock market from iPhone biometric rumors, the Swedish sensor manufacturer rebounded from a lowered sales projection at the end of Q2 and gained an impressive amount of traction thanks to an aggressive stance in the Asian markets.
Today, FPC is continuing to trail-blaze in the realm of mobile fingerprint biometrics, announcing that it has been awarded a design win for it’s new capacitive touch sensor: the FPC1020. The sensor – the first of its kind specifically designed for Android and Windows devices – will be launched on a flagship model from a global Tier One smartphone OEM in Summer 2014.
As has become standard practice with this kind of announcement, due to the highly competitive nature of the mobile security market the OEM has requested that it remain anonymous until further notice.
Judging by how many design wins and mobile product launches FPC has enjoyed in the course of the past few months, it is clear that this is only the beginning of the company’s good news in regards to its newest sensor. As a member of the FIDO Alliance, a consortium dedicated to sharing technology and fostering collaboration in pursuit of open specifications for universal strong authentication, Fingerprint Cards is in good company. The Alliance’s members include both Microsoft and Google, both of whom provide mobile ready operating systems the FPC1020 is specifically designed for.
Fingerprint Cards recently made its first direct contribution to FIDO in its collaboration on an end-to-end authentication system with fellow Alliance member Nok Nok Labs. The solution also leverages the FPC1020 with Nok Nok’s multifactor authentication serve technology in order to better disrupt the current password protection paradigm.
This demonstrated attitude towards collaboration, standards and aggressive expansion, along with the news of this major design win for the FPC1020 truly cements Fingerprint Cards as a dynamic force in the push for strong mobile authentication in the global smartphone arena: an environment primed to explode in the new year.
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