“The timing of this initial mass production order is earlier than we had expected in our most optimistic forecast and confirms that the launch of our technology in Japanese mobile phones is progressing according to plan,” said Johan Carlström, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fingerprint Cards AB, on Monday.
Swedish biometric company Fingerprint Cards AB has breached the 100,000 order mark for fingerprint cards and swipe technology as Japanese electronics company CrucialTec’s productions are underway.
“We have announced three Design wins in Japan and one in China so those two countries are likely places,” Carlström told HumanIPO on the question of where the first fingerprint phones will be released.
He declined to comment further on other launch details.
Fingerprint phones are predicted to hit the market between the second and third quarter of 2013.
The release of fingerprint phones, which work with identification technology by providing secure access to devices through fingerprint reading, was announced this month.
Last year Fingerprint Cards AB delivered three orders to Japanese phone manufacturers.
After an order of one million phones were received, the firm was requested to open an office in Tokyo.
The Japanese electronic market is especially open for biometric improvement as they are keen to stand out from other manufacturers, according to Bloomberg.
Although the press release in December declined to mention the companies working in fingerprint phones, the sensible betting is on Kyocera, Panasonic, Sharp and Sony.
However, IDC research shows these companies do not have enough market share to make it into the top five on global mobile grounds.
The Japanese are, however, not the only nation investing in fingerprint card phones, as Apple entered a US$350 million agreement with AuthenTec to manufacture fingerprint authentication and encryption technology in August 2012.
Fingerprint technology also featured at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, with Silicon Valley-based SecuGen and Validity Sensors displays.
