Higher End Contactless Technology Adoption Drives National ID Smart Card Revenues to 7.6 Billion in 2017

​Governments are increasingly deploying high-end national ID cards to improve security, multi-application adoption, and streamline existing services. Importantly, they also merge online and offline services with cards used to authenticate transactions in both environments. The drive in higher level product adoption will result in end user national ID smart card revenues increasing from $3.5 billion in 2012 to $7.6 billion in 2017.

2012 proved an extremely fruitful year in high-end smart card adoption with France, Russia, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Poland all making progress in their migration to next generation credentials. YoY growth rates are expected to remain in the double digits right through to 2014. The business pipeline remains strong with contactless adoption at the heart of requirements.

In 2012 combined shipments of pure contactless and dual interface national ID cards accounted for 19% of all shipments, forecast to increase to 37% in 2017, but it is the use of dual interface ICs that is demonstrating the fastest growth with a CAGR of 65% over the same time frame.

Research analyst Phil Sealy comments, “An increased proportion of national ID projects now stipulate the use of a dual interface IC. Dual interface gives the best of both worlds with contactless, a convenient, user-friendly, and easy to read solution, whilst being able to offer high value payment transaction capabilities and other services which may require card entry into laptops, PCs, kiosks, and terminals through the contact component. Payments infrastructure heavily supports contact solutions driven by the EMV standard, providing a leveraged platform from which governments can establish payment and welfare applications.”

Practice director John Devlin adds, “Although governments set their own standards and application criteria, the common denominator is the desire to streamline services to decrease costs. Multi-application solutions are proven and the business case is clear, which is why adoption and migration to higher end technology continues to grow even in the face of economic uncertainty.”

ABI Research’s report, “Multi-Application Function, Contactless, Biometrics, and High-End Feature Sets Driving ID Card Growth” provides a focused analysis of high-end smart card adoption within the government ID market, the drivers in adoption, along with selected case studies and future trend overview.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Government & Healthcare ID Technologies 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.