South Korea’s leading fingerprint scanner maker CrucialTec said Monday that its fingerprint module business would continue to gain traction during the rest of this year thanks mainly to the burgeoning Chinese biometrics market.
The Pangyo-headquartered firm said in its regulatory filing it would rake in around 285 billion won ($240 million) in revenue in the latter half of this year, up 280 percent compared to the same period last year.
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CrucialTec CEO Charles Ahn poses with fingerprint modules at the MWC on Monday. (CrucialTec) |
Such a stunning increase in sales would mainly be driven by the company’s business for biometric trackpads, widely known as fingerprint modules, in global markets including China.
The company has supplied its fingerprint modules to smartphone makers Huawei, Fujitsu, Meizu, Oppo and HTC.
The firm drew market attention as it inked supply deals with Huawei for the Chinese firm’s high-end and mid-range handsets, including the Ascend 7, Honor 7 and Ascend G8.
Korean tech giant LG Electronics is also expected to jump on the wagon by deploying the fingerprint technology in its flagship smartphones to be rolled out by the end of this year.
CrucialTec has declined to comment on possible supply deals with LG.
The fingerprint market has been gaining growth momentum as global smartphone powerhouses Apple and Samsung Electronics have adopted biometric sensors in their smartphones.
“Coupled with the rising business for mobile payment, the fingerprint business will see a further growth down the road,” a market official said.
Research firm Gartner predicted that around 40 percent of smartphones shipped to end users would feature biometric sensors, mostly fingerprint scanners, to authenticate users.
By Kim Young-won (
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
