GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global outlook on the Smart Cards Industry. Increasing usage of contactless technology, newer applications and EMV migration across countries are major drivers boosting the global market for smart cards. Awareness about the benefits of smart cards is increasing manifold and so is the number of applications, giving the much needed impetus for the smart c...
GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global outlook on the Smart Cards Industry. Increasing usage of contactless technology, newer applications and EMV migration across countries are major drivers boosting the global market for smart cards. Awareness about the benefits of smart cards is increasing manifold and so is the number of applications, giving the much needed impetus for the smart cards market to continue on its long drawn out growth path.
The global market for smart cards is currently traversing on a double-digit growth path driven largely by major initiatives in the financial, government and security sectors while the telecom sector continues to be the largest end-user with no nearest contender so far. With faster processing speeds and enhanced storage capacities, smart cards of late have also forayed into a number of newer applications even while the existing applications demonstrate immense potential for future growth. While rising security concerns lead the way for rapid proliferation of smart cards in security and identity markets, growth in the financial end-use sector is propelled by the EMV migration across the world. Improvements with regard to interoperability with existing systems could go a long way in encouraging implementation of projects in the future. Region wise, major growth is expected in the EMEA with usage portended to skyrocket in the transportation application end-use area particularly. In the Americas on the other hand, growth would be largely driven by governmental initiatives to introduce smart cards into several industry segments while Japan and South Korea offer immense potential for future growth in terms of technological improvements.
Mandatory migration to the EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa) standard brought forth opportunities for the smart cards industry, serving the banking-retail sector particularly. Nevertheless, despite the overall healthy outlook, the need for compatible standards continues to remain largely unmet with interoperability and migration costs of smart cards being some of the major concerns confronting manufacturers. Smooth integration of the smart card technology with the existing systems is still an expensive affair although certain improvements in this direction are being reported frequently. In addition, lack of smart card infrastructure is also hampering growth in some of the markets. Consumers are also wary about privacy and data security and all these issues are to be effectively sorted out by technology developers.
The global market for SIM cards witnessed robust growth, fuelled by the transformation of the market, with regard to network operators, technology vendors, handset manufacturers, service providers and applications. With the introduction of mobile-broadband services, sales of mobile devices based on latest technologies (such as smartphones) exceeded those of laptops. The advent of advanced services is contributing to the increased demand for SIM cards with integrated capabilities (services, applications and content), in line with the requirements of the wireless sector. Additionally, the continued adoption of 3G-services has enhanced the demand for 3G-enabled cards, which account for about 14.3 percent of overall SIM sales. Maximum growth is likely to stem from the emerging markets of India, Latin America, Middle-East & Africa, and Greater China.