Smartphone Biometrics Are Officially Mainstream: Acuity

Smartphones equipped with biometric sensor technology are now “officially mainstream,” according to Acuity Market Research. In a new report, the firm estimates that about 600 million such devices are currently being used, accounting for about 28 percent of the global base of smartphones in use.

Principal researcher Maxine Most asserts that over the last year, the number of smartphone models featuring biometric capabilities rose from 52 to 197. Much of this growth is thanks to dropping prices, with the average price of such smartphones having decreased from $800 in September 2013 to $251 for the latest quarter.

Remarkably, about 60 percent of these devices feature sensors from Fingerprint Cards, and 93 percent of them run on Android. Meanwhile, Apple, having pioneered the smartphone fingerprint sensor, controls 45 percent of the total marketshare, given the proliferation of its Touch ID-equipped iPhones.

That’s about to change, though; according to Most, “an onslaught of Android based Chinese phones along with aggressive plans by Chinese sensor manufacturers” will produce some significant upheaval in this market over the coming year. And looking beyond that timeframe, Most predicts that smartphones featuring biometric capabilities will reach 100 percent adoption in 2018.