Apple may have rolled out the fingerprint sensor on its iPhone 5s to great reviews, with talk of it being applied to mobile payments soon, but an Android-run device in South Korea has jumped the gun and is getting what is apparently the world’s first fingerprint-based mobile payment service.
The Korea Herald reports that mobile payment service provider Danal has rolled out the world’s first such system today in partnership with fingerprint technology firm Crucialtec, which is landing first on domestic handset maker Pantech’s LTE-Advanced VEGA smartphone.
Users can download an application called BarTong to use their smartphones just like cash — and instead of entering a password, they simply scan their fingerprint via the smartphone.
A Danal official told The Korea Herald that it will eventually bring BarTong to overseas markets including the US and China.
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A race to incorporate fingerprinting into mobile payments is likely to start now that Apple has introduced its Touch ID for the general consumer, and as users are still concerned over the security of e-commerce transactions via their smartphones. Being able to use a fingerprint for access will likely help greatly to ease such worries — and could mark the beginning of a more sophisticated mobile payment system other than what is on the market right now.
Headline image via Shutterstock
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