Governments are increasingly deploying high-end national ID cards to improve security, multiapplication adoption and streamline existing services. They also merge online and offline services with cards used to authenticate transactions in both environments. The drive in higher-level product adoption will result in end-user national ID smart card revenues, increasing from US$3.5 billion in 2012 to $7.6 billion in 2017.
Governments are increasingly deploying high-end national ID cards to improve security, multiapplication adoption and streamline existing services. They also merge online and offline services with cards used to authenticate transactions in both environments. The drive in higher-level product adoption will result in end-user national ID smart card revenues, increasing from US$3.5 billion in 2012 to $7.6 billion in 2017.
2012 proved to be an extremely fruitful year in high-end smart card adoption with France, Russia, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and Poland all making progress in their migration to next-generation credentials. Annual growth rates are expected to remain in double digits through 2014. The business pipeline remains strong with contactless adoption at the heart of requirements.
In 2012, combined shipments of pure contactless and dual-interface national ID cards accounted for 19 percent of all shipments, forecast to increase to 37 percent in 2017, but it is the use of dual-interface ICs that is demonstrating the fastest growth, with a CAGR of 65 percent over the same time frame.
“An increased proportion of national-ID projects now stipulate the use of a dual-interface IC,” said Phil Sealy, Research Analyst. Dual interface gives the best of both worlds with contactless, a convenient, user-friendly and easy-to-read solution, while being able to offer high-value payment transaction capabilities and other services which may require card entry into laptops, PCs, kiosks and terminals through the contact component. “Payments infrastructure heavily supports contact solutions driven by the EMV standard, providing a leveraged platform from which governments can establish payment and welfare applications.”
Practice Director, John Devlin, added, “Although governments set their own standards and application criteria, the common denominator is the desire to streamline services to decrease costs. Multiapplication solutions are proven, and the business case is clear, which is why adoption and migration to higher-end technology continue to grow even in the face of economic uncertainty.”