The major smartphone vendors are in a constant battle to outdo each other when it comes to the marquee features of new releases. Apple certainly upped its game with the iPhone 5s, delivering, among other things, Touch ID, and although, for a while, it appeared as though Samsung might counter with an iris scanner for the Galaxy S5, an app leak suggests that the Korean company will instead seek to emulate its bitter rival by including a fingerprint sensor. This would, if true, tie neatly in with a report from early last week that also suggested the S5 would take this route.
We know for a fact that Samsung has been researching the idea of implementing iris scanning technology into its products, although as has been pointed out by numerous commentators, it doesn’t make much practical sense at the moment. Still a largely unexplored field, an iris scanner in a smartphone would likely require a user to hold their device right up to their face, and although Samsung would probably prefer to come through with an alternative to what Apple has already done, a fingerprint sensor is by far the most practical option for bolstering security.
Having first made a consumer impact with their use in notebooks, fingerprint sensors like Touch ID could become a standard feature in smartphones and even tablets as we gaze upon the digital horizon, and although this latest Galaxy S5 leak is a little sketchy, to say the least, it does come from the ever-reliant Evleaks Twitter handle.
Apparently, the famed spoiler has gotten his hands on a Galaxy S5 APK file named “FingerprintService,” and although there’s literally no further information to speak of, it does add further legitimacy to the notion of the next flagship handset containing its very own Touch ID incarnate.
With Apple and Samsung currently doing battle in court in the ongoing patent spat, it will be interesting to see how the Galaxy maker approaches the new implementation. You feel that any remnants of Apple’s own feature will result in a deluge of lawsuits from the Cupertino company, but since Tim Cook’s team didn’t actually invent the idea, hopefully Samsung will be able to come through with an organic, not-copied-from-Apple fingerprint sensor for what will likely be Android’s biggest-selling feature smartphone this year.
(Source: Evleaks [Twitter])
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