In the 21st century, human mobility is at an all time high. This, in turn, has created an urgent need for an effective device that keeps track, enables convenience and promotes payment. This demand is being highlighted by the need to collect information related to the travelling habits of people and support sustainable urban planning. The Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) region appears the most receptive and ready to adopt smart cards in various verticals, together with the critical mass needed to sustain these deployments.
In the 21st century, human mobility is at an all time high. This, in turn, has created an urgent need for an effective device that keeps track, enables convenience and promotes payment. This demand is being highlighted by the need to collect information related to the travelling habits of people and support sustainable urban planning. The Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) region appears the most receptive and ready to adopt smart cards in various verticals, together with the critical mass needed to sustain these deployments.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, BRIC - What Can the Smart Card Industry Expect?, finds that the success of some of the smart-card programmes, including China's National ID programme, has encouraged an even healthier acceptance and demand for smart cards in the daily lives of customers in the BRIC region.
"The smart card plays the role in the developing mobility scenario," said Damien See, Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst. "Within the various verticals available in the BRIC region, the transportation vertical offers the most attractive growth opportunity."
Smart cards in Europe are established and are used in various day-to-day applications. The market for smart cards in this region is at a mature stage. In Asia, smart cards are still in their infancy. In between these two extremes is the BRIC region. The four countries in this group are deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development and are the best bet for a second growth spurt in the smart cards industry.
"Security and privacy are the biggest concerns in the large-scale deployment of smart cards," See said. "The perceived threat to, and invasion of privacy associated with having personal information residing within a smart chip is sometimes difficult to change."
"Governments need to be transparent about their participation in national level smart card implementation programmes," See said. "This approach will foster public confidence in smart-card deployments." A clear, secure and successful implementation of National ID programmes, for example, will create a healthier atmosphere of trust in smart-card applications. It will, at the same time, pave the way for more implementations in other sectors.
"A clear and transparent deployment is essential to ensure the success of smart-card projects," See said. "The benefits of migrating to a smart card-based system, such as in the financial industry (from magnetic stripes to EMV smart chips) and national identity programmes (such as China's national ID and Malaysia's MyKad national ID programs) are obvious, it is just that the implementation must be transparent in order to win customer trust."
The providers of smart card applications - from business organizations to private institutions -need to be vigilant as they are holding within their custody sensitive customer and citizens data. Once it is established that the smart-card providers are managing such information with proper care and precaution, further applications and use for smart cards will be much easier to promote.