NFC VS Fingerprint: Integration is Better
For the consideration of security and the great interest in mobile payment, NFC and fingerprint recognition is increasingly gaining more traction. As competitors, it is necessary to make a comparison of them in strength and market potential.
NFC (Near Field Communication) is leading enabling technology for mobile transactions, ticketing, service discovery, and device-to-device information exchange. Comparing with Bluetooth and other wireless transmissions, NFC boasts its advantage mainly in security, which draws attention of mobile payment, NFC passive card mode, such as various bank cards, access cards, and travel cards, as well as other application segments.
According to market research firm ABI Research, dollars spent using NFC mobile payment systems will break the $100 billion mark in 2016.
Not only ABI, IDC also forecasts NFC-enabled smartphone shipments are expected to up from less than 50 million in 2011 to more than 600 million in 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate of 78%.
Rapidly reading user data and identifying user with NFC technology enables NFC to enlarge applications in home appliance, medical products, and even wearable fields. For instance, in 2012 exhibition in Germany-based Dusseldorf, Sony introduced NFC-labeled home testing products, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters.
NFC is promising in the future, this is undeniable. How about fingerprint recognition?
In fact, early in 2005, IBM has released fingerprint-authentication notebooks; and mobile phone with fingerprint reader is popular in Japan and South Korea market. But we have to praise Apple’s influence in smartphone market.
In 2012, when Apple announced acquisition of AuthenTec, a leading developer and supplier of fingerprint authentication systems, the industry has predicted Apple’s intention to foray into mobile payment. After Apple launched fingerprint recognition-based iPhone 5S this year, the wave of equipping smartphone with fingerprint scanner really broke out, attracting many cellphone manufacturers to march into the area.
In addition to cellphone, PC and peripherals, as well as consumer electronics with large shipments form stronger support for fingerprint market.
However, the security of fingerprint recognition is uncertain, and is easily to be cracked by flash. As for the largest advantage of facilitating the rapid identification, thus providing a convenient personal cloud service, there is risk when fingerprint information is uploaded to the cloud.
Therefore, the best way is to integrate NFC and fingerprint recognition, so that users can find balance between experience and security.