By adding a fingerprint scanner to its newest mobile phone, Apple Inc is offering a tantalizing glimpse of a future where your favorite gadget might become a biometric pass to the workplace, mobile commerce or real-world shopping and events.Read the whole thing. I think this piece gets things about right.
It's easy to overestimate and underestimate the importance of what Apple has just done. The fingerprint functionality itself is pretty shallow. The fingerprint sensor allows users to unlock the phone and buy stuff from Apple. That is all. But that also reflects that, of course, Apple wants to get things right "in captivity" before releasing the fingerprint sensor "into the wild." And further, I think that means that fingerprint sensors on mobile devices are here to stay. Samsung, Microsoft/Nokia, etc. will follow suit.
