Apple rumored that the iPhone 8 (tentative name) would be equipped with an iris recognition scanner. Apple has been shipping its first smartphone fingerprint sensor since the iPhone 5S launched in 2013.
According to Apple analyst Ming Chiou of KGI Securities, Apple's next iPhone product line includes two iPhone 7S models with LCD screens and an iPhone 8 with OLED panel.
In addition, the iPhone 8 with the OLED panel will be equipped with a wireless charging function and an iris recognition scanner, according to an industry source in Taiwan.
In 2015, NTT DoCoMo and Fujitsu Japan introduced the world's first iris recognition phone, 'Arrowus NX'. The iris recognition function is a biometric authentication technology in which a smartphone infrared sensor analyzes and certifies a user's iris wrinkle, which is more than six times more recognizable than fingerprint recognition, and thus, it is virtually impossible to counterfeit.
Samsung Electronics installed iris recognition scanner on Galaxy Note 7 last year and Galaxy S8 series which will be released in April will be equipped with iris recognition scanner. In order to make mobile financial services easy to use at the time of Galaxy Note 7 release last year, Samsung Electronics also showed 'Samsung Pass' which can login bank site or authenticate with iris recognition.
According to the report, if Apple carries the iris recognition scanner on the next iPhone, it is expected that the biometric security war will start in earnest in the premium smartphone market.