Contactless smart card shipments are forecast to increase from around 950 million in 2010 to 3.5 billion in 2016. This is one of the conclusions drawn from IMS Research's recent report “The World Market for Smart Cards and Smart Card ICs – 2011 Edition.”
According to Don Tait, one of the authors of the report, “In 2010, around 15 percent of smart card shipments are estimated to have been contactless. This is projected to increase to over 30 percent in 2016.”
Contactless smart card shipments are forecast to increase from around 950 million in 2010 to 3.5 billion in 2016. This is one of the conclusions drawn from IMS Research's recent report “The World Market for Smart Cards and Smart Card ICs – 2011 Edition.”
According to Don Tait, one of the authors of the report, “In 2010, around 15 percent of smart card shipments are estimated to have been contactless. This is projected to increase to over 30 percent in 2016.”
“Contactless bank cards are believed to drive much of the growth in the microcontroller market during the forecast period. The People's Bank of China announced plans (in March 2011) to convert China's debit and credit payment cards to smart cards. This announcement will have a great effect on smart card shipments from 2013 to 2015. It is believed that where contactless payment and banking cards are used in China, they will be dual-interface cards.”
Within the transportation sector, all smart cards shipped are projected to be contactless. Whilst in the Electronic Government and Healthcare ID cards sector, all ePassports are contactless. However, in other applications in the government and healthcare sector there is a mix between contact and contactless / dual interface solutions. Even taking this into account, overall around three quarters of cards sold into this application in 2010 were estimated to have been contactless.
Tait continues, “The top contactless applications during the next five years are projected to be bank cards, government and healthcare ID cards, transportation and physical access cards. These four applications are projected to account for around 99 percent of units shipped in 2016.”