Apple to start manufacturing fingerprint sensor in Taiwan

Rumors say that Apple might create some ties with the tech industry from Taiwan, in order to create the fingerprint sensor for the new iPhone generation. As you probably suspected, this move is going to strengthen Apple’s power within the region, while Samsung might lose some ground.

Even though we don’t have any material proof related to the existence of the so much rumored fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S, there are a lot of market analysts who believe that this tiny element is going to appear somehow in the hardware of Apple’s new gadget. One of the people who support this theory is the well known analyst from KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo noted in a recent report, made public by the publication AppleIsider, that  in order to manufacture the fingerprint sensor, Apple might have to work mainly with a supply chain from Taiwan.

When Apple bought AuthenTec, the security company, analysts began making speculations about how the iPhone manufacturer is going to integrate AuthenTec’s technology into their iOS environment. Given that AuthenTec is well known for their awesome fingerprint biometrics, it is expected of Apple to incorporate a component of this kind under the home button of their next iPhone. Rumors about the integration of this component into iOS have gone wild, and there a few pointing towards its usage in the soon to come iWatch.

Kuo, the KGI securities analyst, is almost sure that Apple is going to integrate this reading technology in the hardware of their next device, and more than that, he stated that the Californian company, Cupertino is trying to use a supply chain form Taiwan, thus cutting out the actual supplier for their components, and eliminating from the product build out,  their well-known rival Samsung.

Kuo also highlighted the fact that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, would be a good casting house for the iPhone manufacturer, considering that they previously provided AuthenTec with silicon. We must mention that a collaboration between Apple and TSMC is expected for quite a while now, and a few recent rumors  claim that the Taiwanese company will soon fabricate a new generation of A-series SoC processors.

Besides, it is believed that Xintec, another company from Taiwan is the main candidate for  managing wafer level wrapping. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is the biggest shareholder of Xintec. Now, we know that the company dealt with massive losses during 2012, but if this project will become ongoing, they could receive support for it, and they could be keeping the supply chain in the same area.

Kuo is waiting for TSMC and for the ASE, the assembly specialist to end the process of building the sensor. He also stated that, the final stage of this deal might be completed by the company Sharp, from Japan.

We don’t know yet when the iPhone with an incorporated fingerprint sensor is going to be released on the market, but there are a few reasons that make us believe that it won’t be long by then, and that Apple is in the middle of building a gadget of this sort. For instance, AppleInsider found some software engineer job openings at  Melbourne Design Center, which belongs to Apple. Even though the job posts don’t mention what projects will the future employees work on, we must mention that Melbourne is the hometown of AuthenTec.