Asia Pacific Fingerprint Sensor Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Asia Pacific fingerprint sensor market is expected to register a CAGR of 1.73% during the forecast period (2020 - 2025). Increasing mobile transactions in region, coupled with the government’s initiatives, are expected to be the major drivers for the fingerprint sensors market in the country. China is witnessing a high mobile transactional volume, which is expected to create potential for the market studied.

Key Highlights

• The robust consumer electronics manufacturing ecosystem in China is another important factor fueling the market growth. According to the European Council, China accounts for over 38% of the global consumer electronics market. Major smartphone companies, including Huawei, Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Lenovo, have their manufacturing facilities in the country. With the continuous increase in smartphone sales, the demand for fingerprint sensors that are embedded in smartphones is expected to increase in the region.
• In Asia, China and India have built the world's largest biometric database with initiatives, such as Aadhar and Social Credit Systems. Aadhar is a 12-digit unique number based on the citizen's photograph, iris scans, and ten fingerprints, and as of January 2020, 1,250,784,712 have an Aadhaar number covering 99% of the country's population.
• With the advancements in the field of biometric technology, the region is embracing this technology for authentication. For instance, as per the HSBC's Trust in Technology report, India leads among all other countries surveyed (11 countries surveyed) in the adoption of biometric technology. On average, people in India (9%) are three times more likely than other countries (3%) surveyed to have utilized iris recognition for identifying themselves. Overall, it is about time to see if the advanced biometric technologies like iris would take over the share of fingerprint in the region.
• The Japanese companies in the automotive sector are also actively looking forward to integrating fingerprint sensors in their upcoming models. For instance, Nissan introduced its concept car Nissan Xmotion featured with fingerprint biometric authentication for enhanced security of the vehicles.
• Some of the noticeable companies in the region are entering into strategic partnerships that allow them to further develop the technology, thereby, fueling the demand for the technology over the forecast period. For instance, a new joint venture company has been formed to develop and market next generation biometric applications, through a partnership between Datasonic and South Korea-based Digent.
• With the recent outbreak of COVID 19, the fingerprint sensor market is witnessing a decline in growth due to various organizations and government authorities restricting the usage of biometric systems in their respective premises. For instance, in February 2020, South Korea banned the usage of fingerprint scanners across all government and private organizations owing to the COVID virus that is spread through touchpoints.

Key Market Trends

Consumer Electronics to Drive the Market Growth

• The increasing demand for convenience, availability, and reachability of embedded biometrics is expected to be another significant factor in driving the adoption of fingerprint sensors in consumer electronics. Further, the incorporation of biometrics with consumer electronics, along with its high cost, is assumed to have a negative impact on growth.
• The in-display fingerprint sensor has also gone mainstream in 2019, where smartphone makers, like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme, have already launched smartphones with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Moreover, to deploy this in-display sensor, a smartphone needs to have an OLED display, improving the overall smartphone usage experience. It is projected that various Android phone manufacturers, such as One Plus, Vivo, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, are planning to stick with fingerprint ID as the primary biometric entry point for the next two years.
• To capture a significant portion of the smartphone market, prominent players are highly focusing on bringing innovations in smartphones. For instance, the Redmi K30 5G smartphone has incorporated Fingerprint Cards AB’s FPC1540 slim side-mounted capacitive touch sensor for biometric authentication. The sensor is placed on the side of Xiaomi’s Redmi K30 smartphone inside the power button, which is also suitable for the latest smartphone designs, including borderless and foldable phones.
• Apart from a smartphone, fingerprint biometrics is gaining traction, among other devices, such as tablets and laptops. Various laptop models from Asus, such as Asus ZenBook, incorporate the conventional fingerprint scanner and the IR Face recognition system. It may be because Windows Helio works seamlessly with both security methods. With the growing trend of differentiating products, many of the laptop providers are incorporating fingerprint sensors. For instance, in January 2020, Samsung has launched its premium Galaxy Chromebook at CES. It features Fingerprints’ FPC1145 sensor for a convenient extra layer of corporate and ends user security.

India Occupies Significant Market Share

• India is experiencing a continuous investment toward manufacturing expansion for the consumer electronics market. The Union Cabinet of India passed the National Policy on Electronics (NPE), which aims to create an electronics manufacturing industry in the country to reach USD 400 billion by 2025.
• In January 2020, Samsung announced to invest over USD 500 million to expand its smartphone displays in the country over the span of three years. Transsion India, a Chinese parent company, Transsion Holdings, manufacturers smartphone for brands, including Tecno, Itel, and Infinix. In February 2020, the company announced expanding the country's production to double from the current capacity. With the trend toward in-screen fingerprint sensors, these companies are expected to create more demand for the country's studied market.
• The State Bank of India planned to adopt a multi-mode biometric authentication for its mobile applications. It will comprise either fingerprint or face recognition or by using voice recognition software. The bank is also planning to use biometrics for various mobile banking products, including Unified Payment Interface transactions. With other banks to follow suit, it is expected to bolster the market's demand studied in the region.
• The Government of India is also investing extensively in adopting fingerprint sensor technology. Recently, in January 2020, for the government's Adhaar program, the official partnered with NEXT Biometrics for acquiring fingerprint sensor technology worth USD 750,000. The company mentioned providing its patented NEXT Active Thermal principle-based fingerprint sensor in both rigid and flexible formats for this project. Such government initiatives are expected to continue over the forecast period, which is estimated to drive India's studied market.

Competitive Landscape

The Asia Pacific fingerprint sensor market is moderately fragmented. Both regional and global players are involved in product development and strategic activities such as partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. Some of the key developments in the market are:

• January 2020 - Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co. Ltd announced that its ultra-thin optical in-display fingerprint sensor is used for commercialization of OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren, which was released in the United States. It extended additional features through the optical system and CIS design and refined the standard of biometric authentication solution in the age of 5G.
• December 2019 - Qualcomm Inc announced 3D Sonic Max, with synchronous two-finger authentication using an improved ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The new sensor is 17 times larger in the recognition area than its predecessor 3D sonic sensor, integrated with the Samsung Galaxy S10 series.

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