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NXP, Infineon, Oberthur, Morpho on top in 2012 Smart Card, IC market share study

May 31, 2013

ABI Research reports that in 2012, 7.95 billion smart cards and 7.99 billion ICs shipped — a year-over-year increase of 9.4 percent and 12.0 percent, respectively. IC revenues reached a new high of $2.69 billion, with NFC RF and secure elements providing the main proportion.

A report from ABI's Smart Card & Secure ICs Research Service said that the top four smart card vendors — Gemalto, Oberthur, G&D and Morpho — remain unchanged from last year in market share based on units. Oberthur was the only vendor to maintain its overall market share percentage; the rest dropped slightly. 

 NXP moved to the number one position for revenues with just shy of 30 percent share, while Samsung maintained the number one position for units shipped with more than 2.9 billion SIM cards alone. Infineon maintained its number one position in the smart card market (excluding NFC and embedded security): it had just over 25 percent share in revenues, driven by continued strong shipments into SIM, payment, and government ID markets.

"NFC is going to become an increasingly important entity within the overall smart card and IC business," said research analyst Phil Sealy. "It will become its own standalone core market within the next two years. Success or failure by smart card and IC vendors alike in the NFC space will ultimately affect future market share rankings."

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