News

Reports show trends in smart card production, purchase

May 16, 2012

ABI Research, a provider of analysis and forecasting for global connectivity and emerging technology trends, announced the availability of its reports, "Smart Card and Secure IC Market Data, Global" and "Smart Card and Secure IC Market Data, Asia-Pacific."

The reports include data collected from leading manufacturers of smart cards and secure ICs. Some findings in the reports include:

• The top three applications (government ID, payment cards, and SIM) accounted for 88 percent of the total seven billion smart cards shipped in 2011. 
• The market for smart cards and secure ICs achieved double-digit year-over year growth for shipments in 2011, with increases of 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
• Volumes continued to rise, driven by mobile penetration, ongoing development in the SIM card sector, and the number of countries migrating to EMV.

"Large scale deployments in Asia have provided Asian vendors the ability to build economies of scale, leverage technology, and expand into other regions, increasing their presence ," said group research director John Devlin. "Combined, their 2011 market share increased to 19 percent, up from 16.3 percent, applying further pressure on the big four smart card vendors: Gemalto, Morpho, Oberthur, and Giesecke & Devrient."

"The pure contactless US payment card market was one area that declined in 2011," said research analyst Phil Sealy. "US banks held back on investment into pure contactless technology, while awaiting the impending migration to EMV. Asia as a region had heightened activity in the payment cards market. China's migration to its PBOC 2.0 standard is underway and is boosting a market that shipped in excess of 1.1 billion units in 2011." 

For more on this topic, visit the EMV research center.