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Eurosmart: nearly one billion contactless smartcards shipped in 2013

The global desire for solutions which combine convenience and security shows absolutely no sign of stopping, according to Eurosmart, the acknowledged voice of the smart security industry Revealing some dramatic figures at the opening of CARTES 2013 today, Eurosmart estimates that 7.2 billion Smart Secure Devices will be shipped by the end of this year, with that number growing by 7% to more 7.7 billion units in 2014.
November 18, 2013 Read time: 4 mins
The global desire for solutions which combine convenience and security shows absolutely no sign of stopping, according to Eurosmart, the acknowledged voice of the smart security industry

Revealing some dramatic figures at the opening of CARTES 2013 today, Eurosmart estimates that 7.2 billion Smart Secure Devices will be shipped by the end of this year, with that number growing by 7% to more 7.7 billion units in 2014.

Almost one billion contactless smartcards – 930 million – will be shipped in 2013, an increase of 41% over 2012. And this is without counting the more than 250 million units of NFC secure elements to be shipped this year.

For Eurosmart’s Chairman, Oyvind Rastad, the explanation for this trend is clear. “Contactless payment cards have been in particularly strong demand this year, thanks to the convenient and secure user experience they enable,” he said.

The difficulty with NFC technology has been making the business case, he thinks, but most new phone handsets and payment terminals now include NFC and the forecasts suggest things are changing rapidly.

Every third payment card that will be shipped in 2013 is expected to be a dual interface card, combining contact and contactless technology used, for example, to both pay for goods at a contactless terminal and to withdraw cash at an ATM.

And a growing number of electronic ID cards, like electronic driving licences or electronic passports, also include some contactless functionality.

The Eurosmart forecast for 2013 also finds that every second secure eDocument in the government segment of the industry is contactless, while transit cards such as the Transport for London Oyster card, are in common usage.

Warming to one of the themes of CARTES 2013, Rastad went on to explain why consumer trust is so important. “Our society faces the growing challenge of enjoying the benefits of being increasingly interconnected while, at the same time, being able to safeguard privacy,” he said. “Eurosmart and its members are at the forefront of innovation and will continue promoting smart security solutions that improve the usability of digital services while protecting privacy and combating fraud. Our solutions are simple to understand, easy to use and inherently secure.”  

And it is important that the industry continues to explain what it can offer. “We have tried to make our message even simpler,” Rastad said. “Smart card solutions are simple, easy and secure. It’s our responsibility to offer different solutions to people. Consumers have trust in smartcard technology: they have got used to using Chip & PIN, for example, and not having a problem. What sets us apart is that we have certified, standardised and interoperable solutions. And unlike cloud solutions, part of your protection is in your pocket!” he concluded.


Eurosmart’s global forecast in full

Telecom
• Government regulations have strongly impacted SIM shipments in India in 2013 • Migration to next-generation Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (UICCs) is being driven by deployment of 4G, and there will be more than 260 commercial LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks in 93 countries by the end of the year according to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) • Rapid ramp-up of NFC deployment expected to continue with significant volumes of NFC SIMs • M2M technology opens the door to a wide range of promising new market applications (automotive, smart metering and consumer electronic devices)

Banking-Retail
 
• Migration of payment cards from magnetic stripe cards to EMV standard (chip cards) continues to drive growth in all parts of the world, including in the US where the conversion has just begun • Continued strong growth of dual interface devices (combining both contact and contactless technology); more than one in every three payment cards shipped in 2013 is a dual interface card • The benefit of the chip is expanding more and more to debit and ATM cards in addition to credit cards

Government ID and Healthcare 
• Steady growth in National eID programs, with large reference countries already rolled-out and new programs to be implemented (e.g. Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and Turkey) • 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 traveller programs. The ICAO standard increases the volumes of contactless projects • More than ten EU member states will implement electronic driving licences to comply with Directive 2012/36/EU. First countries to roll out in 2013 are Croatia, France and Ireland • New countries are starting to adopt eVRC (vehicle registration card), especially in Europe with the application of Directive 2003/127/EC 
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