Following on from the successful roll-out with last year’s iPhone 5s, it is strongly suspected that Apple will add the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to both the next-gen iPad Air and iPad mini. A couple of new images out of Asia, said to showcase a prototype of the iPad Air 2, corroborate the notion of Touch ID debuting on the company’s famed tablet, and although we cannot vouch for the legitimacy of the source, these snaps align nicely with what we’ve been hearing just lately.
With Apple having rolled out its first ever fingerprint sensor as a part of the iPhone 5s package, we initially thought – more in hope than in expectation – that the 2013 iPad models would follow suit. Unfortunately, Apple did not add Touch ID to the iPad Air or iPad mini with Retina display, but given how impressed most of us were with the improvements to both tablets as they stood, there weren’t too many complaints from Apple fans.
Having successfully used Touch ID as a pull factor in the sales of the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air 2 (or iPad 6, for those counting), is looking like a sure-fire beneficiary of the very same feature. The iPad mini 3 is also likely to be treated to the decidedly refined fingerprint-sensing hardware later on this year when both models are refreshed, although today’s leak only sheds light on the forthcoming successor to the iPad Air.
It has been argued that the iPad range doesn’t require the quick-fire authentication that iPhone users have enjoyed, but at the same time, Touch ID has successfully sold itself as a secure, useful feature that can actually help to bolster iOS security.
Some scoffed at the fingerprint sensor as something of a gimmick at first, and given that the mobile world had scarcely delved into these realms before Apple did, it’s not too surprising that Touch ID had its fair share of naysayers queuing up to slate it. But despite one or two early security hiccups, it’s now primed and ready to be expanded across the line-up, and if the iPad Air is on Touch ID’s radar, these images leaked out of Japan offer a pretty solid idea of how the eventual product will take shape.
Thoughts?
(via: NowhereElse.fr)
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