Competition for Authenticating Mobile Phones via Biometrics Heats Up

An August 14 item on ThirdFactor.com announced that Animetrics has released new facial recognition authentication on certain mobile phones.

According to the article, “the service, called FaceR CredentialME, is available on devices using the Android, Windows Mobile and RIM operating systems on the Sprint 3G or 4G networks and was launched in conjunction with Troy Security Solutions, a mobile products and solutions provider.”

“The biometric service allows a user to authenticate their identity via unique characteristics in their face recorded from the phone’s embedded camera for anything such as basic online services or corporate specific services. Further, the biometric authentication can be used to entirely replace standard login methods or layered on top of them as a second factor of authentication.”

This announcement comes on the heels of PerSay’s introduction of a voice biometrics solution for iPhones and Bio-Key’s upcoming release of a fingerprint biometrics solution for mobile phones.

The race is on!

Voice Biometrics Market Projections (2009–2011)

According to ThirdFactor, Opus Research predicts the voice biometrics market will grow from $139.4 million (2009) to $225.8 million in 2010, to $260.1 million in 2011. This represents a substantial 62% increase 2009-2010, but only a 15% increase 2010-2011.

I’m puzzled by the % growth decrease (i.e., 62%-->15%) projected for next year. I would expect % growth to continue increasing once voice biometrics systems gain momentum in the marketplace.

What say you?