Fingerprint scanners built into screens could become big reason to choose Android over iPhone

Vivo’s X21 already has an
under-display fingerprint scanner.
Vivo

• The Samsung Galaxy S10 will launch in early 2018 and
  will have a fingerprint scanner built into the device, TF
  International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo
  predicts. 
• Apple does not plan to add a fingerprint scanner to its
  iPhone X lineup.
• All big Android brands will use the
  fingerprint-on-screen feature to differentiate themselves from
  iPhone, according to the note. 

Well-connected TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo
is out with new predictions about the smartphone market in 2019.

If his predictions are correct, a lot of Android users are going
to be able to scan their fingerprints by placing them on a
smartphone screen starting next year — as many as 170 million
Android phones will be sold with the feature next year, according
to a note seen by Business Insider.

In fact,  Kuo notes that “all main Android brands currently
treat [fingerprint-on-display] as the important function to
differentiate themselves from the iPhone.” He mentions Vivo,
Oppo, Huawei, and Xiaomi as brands currently working on phones
with fingerprint-on-display technology.

Although older iPhones have a fingerprint scanner on the area
below the phone’s screen, the current iPhone X doesn’t have a
fingerprint scanner, instead relying on facial recognition to
unlock the device, and Kuo believes Apple’s not planning to add
one to future models.

That means that the next-generation technology to actually build
a fingerprint into the screen, instead of on the back of the
phone, could be a major differentiator for Android phones.
Eventually, the technology will support fingerprint scanning over
a large area of the screen.

An early test of the technology will be the Samsung Galaxy S10,
according to the note, which will launch
early next year and will have a fingerprint scanner built
into the screen, the analyst predicts. There’s already a phone on
sale in certain markets, the Vivo X21, which embeds the
fingerprint scanner underneath the screen.

User feedback for the X21 feature is strong, according to the
note, whereas feedback for the iPhone X facial recognition is
lower than expected.

Kuo’s notes are focused on investment opportunities in the Asian
supply chain that might benefit from new electronics launches.
Currently, Synaptics is a top supplier for fingerprint scanning,
but he increasingly recommends investing in the entire supply
chain, especially companies that supply parts to Goodix, which he
says is the leading provider of optical fingerprint scanning
technology. 

TF International Securities