GS Telecom has acquired intellectual property rights that will enable it to produce what it calls the ATTM Universal Card, according to Inter@ctive Week.
The card could become the world's first anonymous currency card. This means users will be able to purchase cards, which contain a certain number of monetary units -- much like units on prepaid phone cards.
But instead of limiting users to telephone applications, the card will enable users to retrieve cash in 53 currencies from almost any ATM in the world. The card also will enable users to perform anonymous Internet transactions through smart-card readers built into PCs.
"It's the Nirvana that people have been looking for," said Stuart Ashmore, vice president of marketing at GS Telecom.
According to the International Card Manufacturers Association, about 900 million smart cards were in use in 1997. By 2003, that number is projected to reach 6.3 billion -- one card per person globally.
Yet Judy Reed Smith, CEO of marketing strategy firm Atlantic-ACM, said the smart-card market has been slower to develop in the U.S. than expected. "There have been a few fits and starts," she said, "but none of the smart-card applications introduced here have really taken off."
Fred Voit, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group, said there is no market for smart cards in the U.S.
"It sounds like a great idea, but who's going to accept the card in the U.S.?" he asked. "We already have cash cards and debit cards here, and that's what retailers and consumers are comfortable with. It may work in Europe or South America, but the U.S. has proven time and again that it doesn't want smart cards."
Voit said his company quit tracking domestic smart-card usage after the dismal showing they made at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. While he acknowledges that PC makers are beginning to sell machines with built-in card readers, he maintains that U.S. consumers rely on a credit-based rather than a debit-based economy.
"It's going to take more than just shipping computers with smart-card readers on them," he said. "There's going to have to be a huge push for smart cards to be accepted here."
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