Funny time to announce a phone with a fingerprint sensor - soon after it comes out, it will get cold outside and people will realize that they need to take off their gloves in order to use the fingerprint sensor.
(Edit: Referring to the fact that the touchscreen on some Lumias can be used with gloves.)
But wait, there's a new "cheap" iPhone that's targeted at those other markets, right? Oh nevermind, that one doesn't have a fingerprint sensor.
The world isn't the northeast.
Yes. Absolutely. How is this so controversial?
My laptop lets me enter a password, or use a fingerscan. 99% of the time I use a fingerscan, but I have had it malfunction (the driver died or something) in which case I used the password. I very much imagine the iPhone 5S will try to drive a similar use.
It's "too much trouble" with a screen code when you have to do it every single time you grab your device. If you have a fingerprint alternative for the overwhelming majority of cases, yes it would make security more likely.
You clearly don't understand the target audience. An either-or setup for unlocking their phone is already way too complicated, especially for the average iPhone user. Steve Jobs would have never allowed such a gimmicky feature.
If I could bypass it with a quick fingerprint scan that would be brilliant, and that is what Apple is going for. I'm going to guess they do okay in the whole glove situation.