Apple's Acquisition of AuthenTec Killed Motorola's Plans for a Nexus 6 Fingerprint Scanner

Apple's acquisition of AuthenTec killed Motorola's plan to include a fingerprint scanner on the Nexus 6, according to former Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Woodside reveals that the company planned to put a fingerprint scanner at the location of the dimple on the back of the Nexus 6; however, after Apple purchased AuthenTec there was no quality supplier of fingerprint technology left.

Indeed, the 6-inch Nexus 6, he can now admit, was stymied by just one of those big players. A dimple on the back that helps users hold the device should, in fact, have been rather more sophisticated. “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,” says Woodside. Nonetheless, he adds, the addition of fingerprint recognition, “wouldn’t have made that big a difference.”


Woodside moved from Motorola to Dropbox partly due to the freedom from such uncontrollable market forces. "We’re not trying to serve ads or sell hardware", he says.

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