Samsung Galaxy S5 to get Iris Scanner

A Samsung executive said the company is working on a new mobile security system that will be available for both low-end and high-end smartphone models. Rhee In-Jong, Samsung’s senior vice president, announced they’re looking at various types of biometric sensors, including iris detection, which seems to be a bit hit in mobile security systems. Until today, the biometric authentication meant fingerprint scanning, a security system featured by the Galaxy S5 and by Apple’s iPhone 5S.

Considering Apple was the first to add fingerprint scanning mobile security to their devices, Samsung jumps to another level of biometric authentication with Samsung’s mobile enterprise software called Knox. Rhee In-Jong didn’t say iris detection sensors will definitely be added to their high-end smartphones. He stated Samsung is following the market trend regarding mobile security, so a breakthrough in biometric authentication wouldn’t be a surprise considering we’re talking about a market leader.

Samsung’s Knox system is competing with rivals like Blackberry for the attention of possible corporate clients. In the enterprise space, Blackberry will always be a strong competitor, but Rhee is optimistic. He stated that there are 87 million devices that feature the Knox and 1.8 million of them are owned by banks and other financial companies that actively use the system. Rhee also said the number of clients is growing, so a wider distribution of devices featuring the Knox will be Samsung’s next goal.

When Samsung will have enough certification, Rhee says other companies will want the Knox system and the demands will inevitably rise. Unfortunately, the Knox was recently studied for a possible security problem, so this might have affected the system’s credibility towards its efficiency. But Samsung said the “problem” was not specific to their devices and this potential security flaw should not influence the customers’ choice.

Whether Samsung will add iris detection sensors to their smartphones is not certain, but as many other devices already feature fingerprint recognition, the tech giant might consider adopting this new type of biometric authentication. So if the company wants to maintain its position as market leader, it should be the first one to introduce this new mobile security system to the market, given that Apple launched devices with fingerprint recognition sensors almost seven months before Samsung did.