NEXT Biometrics reports healthy progress in first half of 2015

NEXT Biometrics Group ASA reported an “eventful” first half of 2015 in which the company successfully expanded its range of fingerprint sensor products, strengthened global distribution, increased production capacity, appointed several executives and is positioned for significant growth in the second half and in years ahead.

“The company has now earned a unique position in an industry that sees a massive ‘Apple-effect’ now spreading beyond smartphones into tablets, notebooks, tokens, keyfobs, internet-of-things, payments and a long range of other new innovative applications.,” said NEXT Biometrics CEO Tore Etholm-Idsøe. “The The ‘Apple-effect’ refers to Apple popularizing the fingerprint sensor by adding it to the home button on its iPhone.”

NEXT Biometrics said it focused on several major tasks during the previous six months, ending June 30, including extending the product offering from one generic to six market-adapted sensor modules, securing a top class distribution and direct/indirect management of more than 170 leads, verifying the performance benefits of the NEXT technology, increasing production capacity and bringing down production cost, and expanding the NEXT organization.

The first half of 2015 included the release of six different modules to replace the first original 2014 fingerprint sensor module.

The company saw a steady growth in number of customer leads, which now total more than 170 projects worldwide.
During the launch of Windows Hello, Microsoft executives highlighted NEXT Biometrics as a leading supplier of fingerprint sensors.

The NEXT value proposition is gaining more attention in the smartphone space as the market is moving toward payments, enterprise and governmental applications, said Etholm-Idsøe.

The company is seeing a significant growth in the number of high quality leads. To handle this increase in leads, NEXT has extended its network of best in class distributors to include Japanese distributor Hakuto, said Etholm-Idsøe.

NEXT is also now one of only three suppliers worldwide to have secured a TIER 1 design-win and is able to deliver products in high volumes.

Upon installing custom-built coating machine at INNOLUX/Taiwan during the second quarter of 2015, NEXT has now increased its monthly fingerprint sensor production capacity to 1.2 million units while significantly lowering production costs.

During the first half of 2015, NEXT has expanded its teams in Oslo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Prague, Taipei and Shanghai from 39 to 52 people.

“There are an increasing number of suppliers in the market for small-sized smartphone sensors,” said Etholm-Idsøe. “In high-end smartphones and all other targeted market segments, larger sensors are required and there is little competition for NEXT. This market condition is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.”

Previously reported, NEXT Biometrics Group recently held its annual general meeting in Oslo, Norway, where it re-elected key board members.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Next Biometrics