It didn’t take long for smartphone manufacturers to catch up to Apple’s iPhone. Within a few years of the original iPhone’s debut, high-end Android smartphones with comparable or even better hardware than their iPhone contemporary were being released on a regular basis. That doesn’t mean, however, that Apple gave up its role as an industry innovator. The new iPhone 5S, for example, introduced a fingerprint scanner and a 64-bit processor. Now it appears that other those features are set to become the new standard in high-end smartphones.

The Wall Street Journal today reported that the HTC’s upcoming One Max smartphone will have a fingerprint scanner. The report’s two unnamed “people familiar with the matter” were less clear on how exactly the scanner would be used within the Android operating system.

As the journal points out, even a useful fingerprint scanner may not be a selling feature for smartphones. Fingerprint scanners in notebook PCs have not taken off, despite being available for years. Also, the security of such technology is largely questionable.

Despite its recent financial troubles, HTC appears to still be keeping pace with some of the best smartphone hardware on the market. That might not be to its benefit, though, since market watchers are now predicting smartphone markets in the west to begin saturating in the coming years. Smartphone market growth is instead predicted for developing markets such as Brazil, India, and China, where low-cost handsets will make up the majority of sales.

(via Wall Street Journal)