Smart card technology continues to become increasingly pervasive and is being adopted (in some cases mandated) for a growing number of important private and public sector applications. In particular, it is now clear that smart cards will constitute a significant component of most I.T. systems in the future. Over the last two years there have been a number of key developments in the acceptance of smart cards which will dramatically affect the number of cards issued over the next few years, as well as the use of the technology.

The global decision to migrate bank payment cards to EMV smart cards the EMV standard has now been accepted as the future of all bank payment cards and Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, JCB and other card payments associations are now actively working with financial card issuers towards the eventual conversion of all bank payment cards to smart card technology. More recently, the first contactless bank payment card schemes for fast, low value payments at the retail point-of-sale are now being launched

The beginning of Government smart card rollouts around the world the public sector has now realised that smart cards will play a key role in most future public sector and e-government services. Government departments in Europe, the U.S.A. and in Asia have now begun high profile rollouts of smart cards for local and national schemes. At the same time, the movement towards next-generation, chip-based passports and visas, for increased border security and automated passenger clearance, is now beginning.

The growth of mobile telephony, m-commerce and mobile digital ID
Smart SIM cards have now been mandated for 3G handsets (and CDMA and TDMA systems have begun their introduction). It is now accepted that every mobile device will contain at least one SIM card, and will likely interface to third-party smart cards for mobile payment and identity applications. Smart cards are now also being introduced to secure wireless LAN access on 802.11 networks. These smart cards will provide the foundation for digital identity and payment services over networks.

The problems of network logon, e-commerce, digital money and digital ID
Banks, credit card companies, retailers and Internet companies are now starting to accept that smart cards will play a pivotal role in the development of business and public sector services that require secure payments transactions or secure identification and authentication of users, over the Internet. Corporations are adopting smart cards to provide employees with logical access to corporate IT resources, physical access to buildings as well as other applications in the workplace.

The rapidly increasing acceptance of contactless smart cards
Although physical access control and transport automatic fare collection applications still dominate the contactless smart card market, end-users are beginning to explore and develop contactless technologies for new applications. These include card associations and their member banks, for fast and convenient low value transactions at the point-of-sale, and government agencies for long life ID cards and travel documents that offer increased security and convenience to citizens.