Eurosmart: 7.7 billion secure microcontrollers shipping in 2014
20 November, 2013
category: Contactless, Government, Health, Smart Cards
Eurosmart released its findings and forecasts for the 2013 and 2014 worldwide shipments of microcontroller-based Smart Secure Devices. An estimated of 7.2 billion Smart Secure Devices were shipped in 2013, a number that is projected to grow by 7% to more than 7.7 billion units in 2014. These numbers, according to the organization, suggest the global demand for high-end technological solutions combining convenience and security is strong.
Contactless technology – including near field communication and dual-interface cards – is leading the charge. A growing proportion of electronic ID cards, like the electronic driving license or electronic passport, are now including contactless technology.
According to the Eurosmart forecast for 2013, one-half of all secure eDocuments in the government sector is contactless. Cards used in public transport are virtually all contactless as are many physical and logical access cards like company access badges.
For 2013, 930 million contactless cards were shipped, an increase of 41% over 2012. And this does not include the 250 million NFC secure elements shipped during the year.
Government ID and Health care
- There has been steady growth in national eID programs with large reference countries already rolled-out and new programs – including Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and Turkey – to be implemented.
- The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard for electronic machine-readable travel documents is now used worldwide in four kinds of documents: passports, residence permits, national eID with travel function and registered traveler programs.
- More than 10 EU member states will implement electronic driving licenses to comply with Directive 2012/36/EU, including Croatia, France and Ireland, the first countries to roll out in 2013.
- New countries are starting to adopt electronic vehicle registration cards especially in Europe with the application of Directive 2003/127/EC.
Near Field Communication
- Following shipments of 250 million units in 2013, Eurosmart forecasts more than 400 million NFC secure elements to be shipped in 2014.
- The NFC ecosystem is maturing with NFC-enabled mobile devices now available from almost all global handset manufacturers and deployment of contactless point-of-sale terminals is ongoing.
- Mobile network operators, banks, merchants and transport authorities are embracing secure NFC services.
- NFC is enabling use cases beyond payment in combination with location-based services and other approaches.