Rumoured fingerprint scanner in Nexus 6 was real afterall, but Apple killed it

Motorola-built Nexus 6 that launched last year was widely rumoured to feature a fingerprint scanner. This bit of news was true and the recess found on the back of the device that now houses the logo was originally meant for the fingerprint reader, ex-Microsoft CEO, Dennis Woodside told The Telegraph.

What ruined the plans? The report claims Apple is to be blamed as it went ahead and bought AuthenTec, the best  biometrics company in 2012 for $350 million. “The secret behind that is that it was supposed to be fingerprint recognition, and Apple bought the best supplier. So the second best supplier was the only one available to everyone else in the industry and they weren’t there yet,” Woodside told the news site. However, he also added that the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner wouldn’t have made a big difference.

It is believed that the internal prototypes of the device included a fingerprint scanner. Motorola wanted to either buy or license the sensor, but it was stymied by Apple’s purchase.

Woodside took over Motorola when Google bought the company, but left soon after it was sold to Lenovo and joined Dropbox, the most popular cloud-storage company. “One thing Woodside now says drew him to Dropbox is the freedom from some of those uncontrollable market forces as Dropbox isn’t trying to serve ads or sell hardware”,  adds the report.

The Nexus 6 comes with a huge 6-inch Quad HD display and runs Android 5.0 aka Android Lollipop. It is powered by a 2.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor with Adreno 420 GPU, backed by 3GB of RAM. A 3220 mAh battery promises up to 24 hours of battery life. The device is pitted against giants like Apple iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Posted by : Gizmeon