This Frost & Sullivan research service titled World Smart Card Readers and Chipsets Market provides an overview of the readers market, the unit shipment and revenue forecasts for world and individual regions, and market shares of leading participants in those regions. In this research service, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the markets for both PC link smart card readers as well as OEM reader chipsets in the global system for mobile communications (GSM), payment, government ID, national ID, and corporate access sectors.
Market Sectors
Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:
GSM
Payment
National ID
Government ID
Transit
Technologies
The following technologies are covered in this research:
Public key infrastructure
USB tokens
Cryptography
OTP generators
Encryption
Market Overview
Popularity of OTP Generators and USB Tokens Spurs the Total Smart Card Readers and Chipsets Market
The healthy growth rates in the smart cards market has rippled through to the smart card readers market, triggering significant developments in all application sectors. New breeds of smart card readers such as one-time password (OTP) generators and universal serial bus (USB) tokens are rapidly proliferating, thereby supplementing the revenue obtained from the traditional PC-linked readers and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) chipsets segment. "The OTP generators and USB tokens provide a cheaper alternative to a more secure environment by eliminating the need for a PC-linked reader," says the analyst of this research. "While the governments, with their large budgets, can implement a smart card-based security system, business to customer markets can deploy a smart chip-based OTP generator and USB token for starters."
With smart chips offering almost the same level of security as smart cards, smart card readers are being miniaturized to read SIM-sized smart chips. This miniature technology is attracting a lot of attention in huge client-based businesses such as retail banking and online trading. The increasing volume of online transactions and the rapidity with which businesses are becoming electronic-based makes it imperative to adopt sophisticated electronic security solutions. Various organizations will rely heavily on robust technologies such as smart cards, OTP generators, and USB tokens for multiple factors of authentication in virtual private networks (VPN), e-mails, public key infrastructure (PKI), and digital signatures.
Significant Government Patronage Holds Smart Card Readers and Chipsets Markets in Good Stead
Most of the revenues in the PC link smart card readers segment stems from the government ID and corporate access market. "The increasing importance given to logical access, besides physical access, in government and corporate environments is substantially aiding the growth of PC link readers," notes the analyst. In North America, the Department of Defense has extended the use of smart card readers from physical access to logical access, creating greater growth prospects for PC-linked readers. Moreover, with standards being finalized, smart card readers will experience increased uptake, especially in projects such as the personal identity verification card, the transportation worker identification credential (TWIC), and e-passport.
In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, governments are upgrading to digital data from purely paper-based documents. They are adopting e-passports, also known as smart passports, to not only reduce passport thefts and forgeries, but also speed up immigration checks at airports and borders. Meanwhile, in the Asia Pacific, numerous government projects based on smart card technology were launched over the last three years. Several pilots such as Taiwan Health Card, Singapore Civil Service employee cards, Pakistan’s e-passport, and India’s Driving License project have now moved into the operational stage, creating huge demand for smart card readers. Awareness about the use of smart cards is also growing in this region, further promoting the total market for readers.
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