Sam Oliver
Motorola did intend to include a Touch ID-like fingerprint sensor in its Android flagship Nexus 6 smartphone, the company's then-CEO has revealed, but canceled the plan following Apple's acquisition of would-be component supplier AuthenTec.
"The secret behind that is that it was supposed to be fingerprint recognition, and Apple bought the best supplier," former Motorola chief Dennis Woodside told The Telegraph, referring to a dimple on the handset's rear that now contains the Motorola logo. "So the second best supplier was the only one available to everyone else in the industry and they weren't there yet."
Apple purchased AuthenTec in 2012, paying $356 million for the company. Though some of that outlay was recovered by selling AuthenTec's encryption business, Apple's primary motivator for the deal is now largely regarded to have been the intellectual property surrounding AuthenTec's Smart Sensor components.
Rumors that the Nexus 6 would include such a sensor began circulating months before the device was announced, but it was believed to be a swipe-style sensor as found in Samsung's Galaxy S5. It now appears that that was Motorola's backup plan, and it may have been the same for Samsung.
Users have complained about the effectiveness of Samsung's solution since the S5's release, calling out the fiddly swipe gesture necessary to use it. Meanwhile, Apple's Touch ID has won rave reviews and enabled the rollout of Apple Pay, arguably the most successful mobile payment system ever released.
Touch ID has been so successful as a differentiator that Samsung is rumored to have swapped their part out for a new Touch ID-style sensor in the Galaxy S6, likely from Swedish firm Fingerprint Cards, the company which supplies a similar part for Huawei's Ascend Mate 7.
Still, Woodside believes the addition of a fingerprint sensor "wouldn't have made that big a difference" for the Nexus 6.
Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
83 Comments
[I]Shamu[/I] is too big for most Android fans even. And putting it on the back is stupid, but who expects budget phone makers to pay attention to useability? After all, [I]specs sell.[/I]
[quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/184507/fingerprint-sensor-for-googles-nexus-6-was-nixed-after-apple-bought-authentec#post_2666565"][I]Shamu[/I] is too big for most Android fans even. And putting it on the back is stupid, but who expects budget phone makers to pay attention to useability? After all, [I]specs sell.[/I][/quote] Sensor on the back makes a lot of sense to me. Where is your index finger when you're holding your phone? Making it an even larger phone by adding chin-space for the sensor on the front is what wouldn't make sense. Does it to you?
This is what happen when you let a lawyer (Woodside) run a technology company. Woodside had not clue what he was doing. Google put him in place since they saw the Motorola acquistion as IP grab not a business that need to operate as a cell phone company. But it was too late, the EU and FTC told them they could not use the IP to beat up the industry and they had to run Motorola as cell phone company and could not just shut it down to collect all the IP. In the mean time Apple was buying up all the technology that Motorola was planning to use. The same happen when Apple bought the company in Israel which did NAND memory design and management. Motorola was working with them as welll to improve the performance of its NAND In the cell phones.
[quote name="Gatorguy" url="/t/184507/fingerprint-sensor-for-googles-nexus-6-was-nixed-after-apple-bought-authentec#post_2666566"] Sensor on the back makes a lot of sense to me. Where is your index finger when you're holding your phone? Making it an even larger phone by adding chin-space for the sensor on the front is what wouldn't make sense. Does it to you?[/quote] My index finger is on the side of the phone, where it belongs.
really!? Do you have eyes on the back of the phone? Do you put your phone on a table with screen up or down?