Fingerprint Sensors to Maintain ‘Market Dominance’: Report

“At a time when many mobile-focused fingerprint sensor makers have been assessing the fiscal impact of dropping ASPs, the reports offer some much-needed perspective on the big picture.”

Another market research firm is pointing to the ongoing ascendancy of the fingerprint sensor market.

The latest evidence comes by way of ABI Research. In a report based on its newly published “Biometric Technologies and Applications” study, ABI Research Industry Analyst Dimitrios Pavlakis asserts that “total fingerprint sensor shipments for the entire consumer market is still estimated to reach 1.2 billion worldwide for 2018, thus ensuring its market dominance.”

The report does acknowledge the “significant hit” against Average Selling Prices for fingerprint sensors over the last couple of years, and the growing popularity of iris and facial recognition in the mobile market. Nevertheless, it insists that “fingerprint technologies won’t go down without a fight”, and highlights the efforts of “innovative vendors including FPC, Qualcomm, Synaptics and Goodix” to develop “more robust, spoof-resistant sensors”. And it pays particular attention to the innovation of in-display fingerprint sensor technology, which the report calls the new “poster-boy” of fingerprint authentication.

The analysis comes on the heels of a MarketsandMarkets forecast that pointed to continuing, strong growth for the overall fingerprint sensor market, with the prediction that its value will rise from $4.25 billion this year to $8.8 billion by 2023. At a time when many mobile-focused fingerprint sensor makers have been assessing the fiscal impact of dropping ASPs, the reports offer some much-needed perspective on the big picture.

The mobile sector will be a smaller part of that picture going forward, however, as new applications come to the fore via developments like fingerprint scanning payment cards. ABI Research also sees a rising profile for facial and iris recognition going forward, with multimodal systems becoming the norm across a range of new technologies, from card-less biometric ATMs to smart cars featuring driver recognition. Fingerprint recognition won’t be the clearly dominant modality forever, but it will stay on top for a while yet.

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May 30, 2018 – by Alex Perala