Great News! NEXT Biometrics Group ASA and BIO-key International Inc. Enter Into Strategic Software and Hardware Partnership Agreements.
WALL, NJ and OSLO, NORWAY--(Marketwired - Sep 19, 2014) - BIO-key International, Inc. (OTCQB: BKYI) and NEXT Biometrics Group ASA (OSLO: NEXT) today announced that they have entered into strategic hardware and software partnership agreements which will enable both companies to strengthen their already market leading offerings. NEXT has licensed BIO-key's fingerprint algorithm for inclusion with their new reduced-area, low-cost sensors, and BIO-key has placed a purchase order for NEXT area sensors for use in BIO-key's new line of low-cost and high performance fingerprint scanner devices.
As part of NEXT's commitment to become a leading fingerprint sensor provider in the Smartphone and Tablet space, the company requires a superior algorithm to pair with its new mid-sized fingerprint imaging sensors. After a comprehensive evaluation, NEXT entered into a licensing agreement with long-time biometric algorithm innovator BIO-key International Inc. BIO-key's software allows NEXT to offer moderate sensor size reductions without compromising system level security or user experience. Combining BIO-key's algorithm with NEXT's new reduced-area sensors further enhances NEXT's competitiveness in the Smartphone and Tablet markets.
BIO-key and its channel partners are volume distributors of fingerprint sensors for OEM and enterprise access. For their short and medium term needs, BIO-key has placed a purchase order for NEXT sensors. This contract is at NEXT's game changing sensor pricing levels -- representing both significant savings and increased competitiveness for BIO-key their partners and customers.
Tore Etholm-Ids?e, CEO, NEXT Biometrics said, "This collaboration is a perfect match for both parties. NEXT Biometrics will, by including BIO-key in our 'NEXT Certified Partner Program,' further enhance its offering in the design and price focused Smartphone and Tablet space and at the same time, we get a new, attractive, sensor customer."
Michael DePasquale, Chairman and CEO of BIO-key, stated, "We are proud to have been selected by NEXT to complement their breakthrough sensor technology. The NEXT sensor line comes at the perfect point of inflection in fingerprint biometric adoption and complements existing offerings in our product line. Consumers have accepted the value proposition of fingerprint authentication, as evidenced by the success of Apple's Touch ID, yet there has not been a high quality area sensor USB peripheral available for the mass market with a list price below $40. Our customers in the financial services, retail and healthcare verticals are requesting high quality, low cost area placement sensors to be deployed in volume, and this partnership with NEXT will facilitate that into 2015," continued DePasquale.
ABOUT NEXT BIOMETRICS Enabled by its patented Active Thermal Principle, NEXT offers high quality area fingerprint sensor at a fraction of the prices of comparable competitors. A wide range of product formats including Smartphones, Tablets, PC's, Doors, Time registration systems, Payment terminals, Flash drives, Usb-tokens, Key fobs and many more are targeted. NEXT BIOMETRICS GROUP ASA is a publically listed company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with sales, support and development subsidiaries in Seattle, Silicon Valley, Taipei and Shanghai.
