The acquisition of Authentec was made in a hurry: pressing need for a fingerprint sensor at Apple?

On an evokedin this article published at the end
July, Apple's surprise acquisition of the company
Authentec. This company specializes in manufacturing
fingerprint sensor and it has, according to the documents relating to
the purchase and
analyzed by The Next Web herebeen redeemedin a hurry
by Apple.

A look back at this takeover and the conclusions drawn by TheNextWeb:

While discussions began at the end of 2011 between the two companies,
it was then a licensing agreement which was mentioned for February 2012. But the
May 1, Apple decided that a deal like this wasn't enough, and
proposing the repurchase at a price considered by Apple as not being able to be offered
by another company.

The documents specify that Apple insisted thatthe negotiations
go very quicklyin connection with "its product planning"
and that Apple would therefore not participate in a possible auction sequence
on society.

During July, the two partners continued to work together in
parallelon product development and acquisition
possible, a sign that Apple did not want to suffer any delay whatsoever
the outcome of the negotiations. It was then in mid-July that the last
Obstacles to the takeover were removed and Apple finally paid135
million dollarsto take control of Authenticc.

TheNextWeb emphasizes that this haste to move forward with the buyout ideally but
also in the ability to use Authentec's "products" is for them a
sign that thesecould be present very quickly in the
Apple productsand for them, it would be asensor
fingerprint.

An Authentec product for mobiles:

Adding that Authentec products are present in computers
various long-standing brands,if it was a question of incorporating them
in a Mac, the notion of urgency which is reflected in the acquisition would be little
understandable. On the other hand, the site of course mentionsthe arrival of a new iPhoneand potentially
new iPad, while evoking
l’application Passbook d’iOS 6which could be more
secured by a fingerprint detector than by a simple password
passe.

So… Classic delirium linked to the arrival of a new iPhone? Or
real industrial reality?

We will know more in a few weeks.

The fact remains that if it is indeed a fingerprint sensor intended for
l’iPhone,we wonder how Apple can manage to integrate it
without altering the design, and that’s a major point!

Source

founder of the site. Computer engineer and Internet specialist where he has held various positions of responsibility, Laurent has been passionate about mobility since the arrival of "PDAs" in the 90s. Journalist for 4 years for the magazine Team Palmtops (Posse Presse) and author of several books on the iPad published by Pearson.