TrendForce: Optical Fingerprint Sensors to Take 6.7% of the Market in 2019

TrendForce reports that "The development of fingerprint sensor technologies has been previously restricted by low yield rate and insufficient investment from the supply chain, says TrendForce. However, with the increasing demand for fingerprint sensors from smartphone vendors like Vivo, the design houses have invested heavily to increase yield rates and seek more cost-effective solutions. The cost of the optical in-display fingerprint sensor of Synaptics was US$12~15 each in 2017, but has a chance to decrease to lower than US$8 in 2019, as Goodix, Silead and other companies in turn enter the field. At that time, brands may also embed in-display fingerprint sensors in their mid and high-end models, instead of only in flagships, so as to fit in the design of full-screen."

For some reason, TrendForce does not mention that Synaptics has stopped its optical fingerprint R&D.

"3D sensing technology is still favored by flagships of major brands, and has been constantly improved in terms of costs, design, and algorithm. In addition to Apple’s large-scale adoption of Face ID in 2019, major Android brands will also adopt 3D face recognition in their flagship models. In the long run, 3D sensing will be embedded in middle and high-end smartphones, while 2D face recognition will penetrate into the middle and low-end segments which are more sensitive to costs."