With the workplace becoming more mobile and bring-you-own-device programs beginning to become popular, more businesses than ever now need potent mobile security. While the mobile security software industry will certainly become a major segment of the business-to-business tech market in the coming years, mobile hardware security will also become a billion-dollar market by the end of 2014. This new market will be led by a variety of solutions, including features such as the latest iPhone’s fingerprint scanner.

Market research firm Gartner today issued a report showing that the use of biometric mobile authentication will rise significantly in the coming years. The firm estimates that only 5% of the organizations it surveyed are using the technology currently. By 2016, however, Gartner predicts that 30% of these organizations will be using mobile biometric authentication.

Though biometric security might seem like flashy gadgetry, Gartner believes the technology will provide a compromise between individual user expectations and the needs of business security. Though passwords are easy enough to implement on mobile devices, the average use case for smartphones might mean dozens of password entries throughout just one day.

“Mobile users staunchly resist authentication methods that were tolerable on PCs and are still needed to bolster secure access on mobile devices,” said Ant Allan, research VP at Gartner. “Security leaders must manage users’ expectations and take into account the user experience without comprising security.”

In addition to biometric hardware security, Gartner recommends that businesses do still use passwords heavily. This is especially true of corporate data which could be accessed through mobile accounts, such as through email. Such a two-tier security scheme could help protect sensitive data more efficiently than remote data wipes, which can often be unreliable.

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