Market expansion expected in volume and revenues
With 5.2 billion microcontroller- and memory-based smart cards shipped in 2009, the IC market was worth $1.7 billion, according to ABI Research’s Smart Card Market Data Service. ABI expects the smart card market to grow in both card volume and IC revenue and they have seen government ID and contactless payment and banking cards become a big part of everyday life for most consumers.
ABI Principal Analyst John Devlin, says last year’s market conditions were different. “Whilst the smart-card market largely weathered the recession in terms of consumer demand, the IC market took a hit on two fronts. Firstly, it was unusual as both card manufacturers and issuers ran down their inventory as they assessed the impact of the credit crunch. Secondly, price pressure increased greatly as IC manufacturers looked to fill plant capacity and maintain orders. Combined, these factors saw the value of the market fall by more than was expected.”
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