New HTC’s Phone to Have Fingerprint Sensor

Another smartphone with a fingerprint sensor is just a week away from launch.

HTC Corp. is set to unveil the HTC One Max, which will have a fingerprint sensor among other features, on Oct. 15, two people familiar with the matter said.  

That will put a new smartphone with a fingerprint scanner on the market alongside Apple Inc.’s iPhone 5S.

The HTC One Max will be based on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. But it’s unclear what kind of applications its fingerprint sensor will have, or whether it could be used to authorize app purchases or other transactions as with the iPhone 5S.

While fingerprint sensors seem poised to become a growing trend, analysts say they are still limited in their usefulness for now. They have already been a feature in laptops for more than a decade–with Toshiba Corp. unveiling a fingerprint reader in 2000–but have never gained widespread use. The first smartphone equipped with a fingerprint sensor, Motorola’s Android-based Atrix that was launched in 2011, also failed to develop a following because of glitches in the feature.  

“The applications for fingerprint sensors are still pretty narrow,” HSBC technology analyst Jenny Lai said. “To do something like wireless payments, it requires a whole system to be built up, not just the hardware. There are basically two companies that could possibly do this kind of integration: Apple and Google.” 

Even so, the Taiwanese company, which last week announced its first quarterly loss in over a decade,  is hoping the feature draws in more customers.   

The HTC One Max, a larger version of HTC’s flagship phone, will have a 5.9-inch display. It will also have features similar to the flagship One, such as an Ultrapixel camera, which the company claims captures better pictures in low-light, and Blinkfeed, which integrates social media feeds into a single interface, said one of the people familiar with the matter. HTC also launched a smaller version of the One, the One Mini, in July.


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