Samsung could have beaten Apple to the punch with the launch of a fingerprint sensor-enabled smartphone, but the tech was dropped from the recent Galaxy Note 3 handset, a new report has claimed.
The company had planned to include the security tool within the 5.7-inch phablet, announced in early September, but it did not meet expectations during quality assurance tests, Korean site ETNews (translated) has claimed.
Now the company has decided to delay the inclusion of a fingerprint sensor until the next generation of smartphones, be that within the Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 or Galaxy S5 smartphones, the report said.
The report is somewhat of a surprise, because just recently, Samsung claimed it was not working on a fingerprint sensor and had no plans to incorporate the tech within next year's Galaxy S5 handset.
"We are not yet developing the technology," a Samsung official said when questioned, so it's probably healthy to take today's news with a healthy serving of salt, although it's unlikely Samsung would admit it, even if it were in on the act.
Of course, Samsung's purported temporary absence from the field allowed Apple to get the jump with the launch of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which sites within the revamped Home button on the iPhone 5S handset.
HTC is also thought to be getting in on the act when it eventually launches the larger HTC One Max device, as fingerprint security emerges as arguably the next must-have feature within the smartphone.
Would you like to see a fingerprint sensor make its way into Samsung's next-fen phones? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
For more news and rumours related to the Samsung Galaxy S5 handset, check out our round-up here.
