Apple is expected to unveil its new iPhone in less than a month, and the rumors are running more rampant than ever. They’re also getting more interesting.

Matt Brian at TheNextWeb has put together an in-depth, and compelling argument as to why the next iPhone could very well come with technology that would associate the user’s fingerprint with their identity for use in the company’s Passbook iOS 6 application.

You may recall last month, when it became known that Apple is buying network security provider AuthenTec. Long story short, after digging through various documents and SEC filings, Brian was able to piece together (with a healthy dose of pre-iPhone 5 launch speculation, of course) what could be Apple’s plan to include fingerprint hardware technology in the next iPhone. Again, that’s with a lot of assumption and speculation involved, but based on the information presented, it would make a great deal of sense.

I’m not going to regurgitate all the ins and outs of why this may be happening. If you want to know, read Brian’s lengthy post. Suffice it to say, Apple seems to have been in a hurry to get this acquisition done, and has been adamant that production continue “unhindered,” making it seem like Apple wanted it to be ready for something it’s launching in the near future (like say, the next iPhone, and iPad, for that matter).

Passbook, a highly touted feature of iOS 6, would indeed be an ideal use for the fingerprint technology. It handles boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards, etc. The more sensitive data a user keeps in the application, the more security factors in. Since phones are highly personal devices, arguably even more so than iPads or Macbooks, an upcoming iPhone model seems like an ideal device to feature such technology.

More iPhone 5 rumor coverage here.