CONFIRMED: Touch ID Biometrics on New MacBook Pro

Validating speculation that has endured for months, Apple has announced a new MacBook laptop that features an OLED touchscreen bar and a built-in Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Much of the early buzz about the new MacBook Pro revolves around the Touch Bar, which is designed to offer adaptive, easy access to popular icons, and dynamically changes depending on what app is currently being used. This is also Apple’s most powerful MacBook Pro yet under the hood, and its lightest and thinnest in design.

But the inclusion of Touch ID in the device could have powerful ripples in the tech world. It’s certainly not the first laptop to feature a fingerprint scanner, but it is perhaps the most high-profile one; much the same could have been said of the first iPhone to feature Touch ID back in 2013, and Apple went on to lead a revolution in the smartphone industry that may ultimately see virtually all smartphones equipped with fingerprint sensors.

It’s too early to say if that’s going to happen again with respect to laptops, but it’s perhaps worth noting that in a quarterly report issued today, the CEO of industry-leading fingerprint sensor supplier FPC suggested that PCs could be the next big market for his company. And with online shopping on the rise, it seems fair to expect that users will quickly get used to the idea of authenticating on their laptops just as many do now on their phones.

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)