Has the first Death Nail been put in Passwords as we Know it, and how could this effect Website Design

On September 10th 2013 (Yesterday if you are reading this on the 11th) Apple announced the new versions of their iPhone device.  The iPhone 5s was announced with including a finger print reader, built into the home button, which Apple has said will be used not only to securely unlock your device but for authorizing purchases in it's App Store, iTunes  and iBooks stores (in other words all of their digital store fronts).

One can only presume that should Apple actually open the API of this technology up to developers, there could be a day where code is written into websites that pings the sensor on the iPhone, iPad or other such devices and allows for the logging into a secure area of a Website from that specific device by the software sending to the server a ping message saying

"Server, I have confirmed that it is David, attached to the email address inertial.zen@gmail.com, grant him access"

The benefits of this to consumers when it comes to confidence in the security of their online interactions can not be stressed enough.  Apple has said that the finger print reader

• Is Capcitive  touch, scanning the finger at the subcutainious level
• Will better learn the user's finger print ID with each use
• Will store the encrypted, learned finger print images on a enclave in the physical A7  chip of the iPhone 5s, without it being uploaded to the cloud or online servers.
• Devices can be taught to recognize more than one person's finger print (in the cases of shared devices)

As more users move towards doing more of their online life using Smartphones and Tablets, from email to personal banking to online purchases, this technology introduced by Apple into the iPhone 5s device has the potential to change the way Websites are created from a security standpoint.  It's quite possible that in the next 5 years we could see a world where passwords themselves become a sub level of multi factor authentication, or are kept around only for those times when the device you have to access sensitive information from either never had a finger print reader or has not been retrofitted to include one. A world where we rarely, if ever have to look at a screen that reads 

Email: name@provider.extension

Password: ********

What are your thoughts on this possible future, Feel free to leave comments below