Will the iPhone's newest sensor change the world again?

In an excellent article posted to The Verge earlier this afternoon Casey Newton made the point I intended to discuss this evening almost as an aside near the end of his article:

“Apple could also let users log in to other apps and services using a fingerprints, providing secure authentication into apps and websites with a couple of taps. If biometric solutions become widely adopted, the tech industry could begin to phase out — or at least augment — the flawed, familiar password.”

With the advent of Passbook in iOS 6, Apple began handling important personal information such as credit card numbers, boarding passes, and gift cards. A few months ago in June, when the company announced iCloud Keychain, it expanded that domain to include passwords, but only on the Mac platform. Before too long — hopefully prior to iOS 8 — I foresee Apple marrying these two technologies with Touch ID on iOS to give users the ability to not only unlock their phone with a fingerprint, but login to websites and apps with that same technology.

Touch ID in its current form is a technology in its infancy; it will take time before we see the full potential of the groundbreaking feature, and perhaps even longer before we realize it.