New Market Research Report on Smart Cards in the Americas Now Available From the Smart Card Alliance

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ, JUNE 22, 2010 – Today, at least one smart card has been shipped for every person on the planet, with the globally installed base of smart cards estimated to have surpassed eight billion in 2009.  In the Americas, the number of smart cards is expected to grow to 1.2 billion by 2014.  More research, and new information on the state of the smart card market in the Americas, can be found in a new study, “Smart Cards & Smart Card ICs –Americas –2010," created by IMS Research in association exclusively with the Smart Card Alliance.

“This report is the first research of its kind to address smart cards specifically for the Americas, and contains the most up-to-date smart card research available for the region,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.  “That makes it an essential marketing tool for our members, or anyone that is part of the smart card market in the United States, Canada, Mexico or Latin America.  Using the more than 90 tables and 50 figures in the report can help companies identify growth areas and opportunities, and make more educated investments in developing smart card-based products and services.”

 

For the report, IMS Research has drawn on in-depth interviews with major smart card manufacturers, smart card system suppliers, and semiconductor suppliers to the smart card industry.  The features of the report include:

·         Estimates of the smart card installed base for 2008 and 2009 with forecasts to 2014

·         Detailed forecast unit shipment volumes to 2014

·         Detailed breakdowns by product type, end-user sector and geographic region for smart cards and smart card ICs

·         Key trends and opportunities in fast developing sectors such as payment and banking, and ID

·         Key market breakdowns segmented by smart card type, user sector, memory requirement, core bit-width, card type, and geographic region

·         Market share estimates for leading vendors in terms of total unit shipments, with additional splits by memory and microcontroller card types

·         Market share estimates for the first half of 2009 for SIM cards, payment and banking, and e-ID

Pricing and ordering information for the report can be found on the IMS Research Web site, or through the Smart Card Alliance Web site. 

About the Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology. 

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought.  The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America.  For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.

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Mobile Handsets NFC Enabled by 2010?

GSMA calls for NFC as standard feature on mobile handsets

The GSMA - an international trade group of mobile operators - is calling for full near field communication (NFC) functionality to be built into handsets from mid-2009, in a bid to drive the uptake of contactless payments.

To drive development, the Association says it is backing the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's 'Single Wire Protocol' to standardize the interface between SIM cards and embedded NFC chips within handsets.

Rob Conway, CEO, GSMA, says: "We are committed to ensuring that mobile payment services are delivered as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. But this will require device manufacturers to make sure that the vast majority of commercially available handsets incorporate the Single Wire Protocol and Near Field Communications features as standard."

The GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative has already seen trials get underway across eight countries - including Australia, Korea and the US - involving nine mobile operators, with further pilots planned in another 14 countries by 15 operators.

The Association says the positive results of several recent mobile payments trials demonstrate growing consumer demand.

An m-payments pilot launched by a consortium of French banks, telcos and technology vendors last year recently reported customer satisfaction rates of above 90%.

In London a similar trial that allowed people to use their mobile phones to pay for tube journeys and make small value purchases was also hailed as a success, with nine out of ten participants happy using NFC technology on a handset and 78% interested in using contactless services if available.

Mung-Ki Woo, VP, payment and contactless, Orange, says the operator has now run successful trials in France, Spain and the UK.  "For Orange, mass deployment is now mainly dependent on handset manufacturers providing a large range of adequate handsets," says Woo.

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