Apple introduced Touch ID to the iPhone 5s and all hell broke loose after that with competition rushing to implement fingerprint scanners on their smartphones left, right and center. It seems Google and Motorola weren’t that far off either.
Speaking in an interview with The Telegraph, former Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside revealed that the Nexus 6 almost had a fingerprint sensor residing where the current Moto dimple is now. Motorola reconsidered and ditched the idea after the supplier was unable to meet their quality standards.
Woodside also blamed Apple for the failure:
Apple bought the best supplier (Authentec), so the second-best supplier was the only one available to everyone else in the industry and they weren’t there yet, he said.
Apple bought Authentec prior to implementing touch ID for the price of $356 million.
