Emerging Secure IC Applications Will Create New Revenue Opportunity Set to Top $2.9 Billion in 2018

Emerging IC applications, outside of the traditional card form-factors are set to make up an increasing proportion of the secure IC market landscape, accounting for 11% of total shipments in 2013, increasing to 24% in 2018. The primary use cases for ICs outside of card based applications include authentication ICs for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection, use within luxury goods, ICT, CE devices and accessories, pharmaceutical and IT consumables, covering products and components, embedded secure elements for NFC enabled devices and TPMs. Combined it is these emerging applications which will present annual IC revenues in excess of $2.9 billion in 2018.

The threat from counterfeit goods is on the increase and IC technology is seen as a hardware solution to guarantee product/component authenticity, protecting brands and providing a new level of trust between both manufacturer and consumer. On top of this is the increasing installed base of smart devices looking at hardware based security to protect data and manage higher value content.

The growing requirement for hardware security inclusion within smart devices is echoed within the increasing inclusion of NFC embedded secure elements and Microsoft committing to the inclusion of TPM’s within all new Windows 8 smart phones and tablets. OEMs are also looking at how they can better enable secure management to separate personal and business applications in a BYOD environment.

Research analyst, Phil Sealy, comments, “The volume of smart devices and the increasing methods of connectivity have now reached a level which presents a substantial opportunity for criminality. On top of providing a secure location for data storage is the question of how best to store, manage and protect access rights to higher value content and services, including multimedia content and mobile financial services. Device manufacturers are looking to incorporate new hardware security mechanisms to help combat the future threat of a data breach/hack, with IC variants seen as the answer to address future security concerns.”

This Market Data features the collection of primary data from leading manufacturers of smart cards and secure ICs. The data includes the installed base and annual shipments of smart cards and secure ICs by technology and interface type, split out by region and vertical market.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Smart Card & Secure ICs Research Service.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.