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Technavio Announces Top Three Emerging Trends Impacting the Global Smart Card Market in the Government Sector From 2016-2020
[May 03, 2016]

Technavio Announces Top Three Emerging Trends Impacting the Global Smart Card Market in the Government Sector From 2016-2020


Technavio's latest report on the global smart card market in government sector provides an analysis of the key trends expected to impact the market from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

The global smart card market in the government sector is expected to exceed USD 1.6 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 10%. According to Amrita Choudhury, lead analyst at Technavio for IT security research, "One of the major reasons for the growth of the market is the increasing awareness among government organizations about the convenience and security offered by smart cards. With an increase in cross-border travel and terrorism, integration of biometric technologies such as facial recognition in smart cards is increasing."

The top three emerging trends influencing the global smart card market in the government sector according to Technavio's ICT research analysts are:

  • Emergence of multi-application smart cards
  • Integration of biometric technologies into smart cards
  • Increased adoption of contactless smart cards in developing countries

Emergence of multi-application smart cards

Multi-application smart cards are a combination of contactless and contact interfaces in a single card. They have shared storage and information processing and eliminate the need to carry multiple cards for different applications. By 2020, the government of India will implement the use of multi-application smart cards for national IDs and e-purses.

With advances in technology, a number of vendors are offering multi-application smart cards. For instance, in 2001, the Malaysian government adopted multi-application smart cards that were used as driving licenses, national IDs for immigration, healthcare records, and banking services. Apart from photo identification, fingerprint biometric data of an individualis also embedded in these multi-application smart cards.



Integration of biometric technologies into smart cards

Physical characteristics such as fingerprint scan, iris scan, and voice recognition represent the biological information of an individual that is unique and useful for identifying the individual. Scanned biometric features are converted into a digital format for individual identification and authentication. A smart card integrated with biometrics is a combination of a stored template on a smart card and a live scanner. These cards will provide additional security and ensure the safety of the user. Governments are investing heavily in biometric technologies to ensure authorized access to secured premises. Smart cards integrated with biometric technologies are used for documents such as ID cards, e-passports, driving licenses, social security cards, and healthcare cards.


The US has made the use of e-passports mandatory for people traveling to the US under the Visa Waiver Scheme. This helps in fast and secure data processing during immigration. "The adoption of e-passports is increasing in European countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Poland, Greece, and Macedonia. Some countries in APAC, such as Australia, have also implemented the use of e-passports," says Amrita.

Increased adoption of contactless smart cards in developing countries

Government organizations in developing countries are increasingly adopting contactless and contact-based smart cards for identity verification and authentication. Contactless smart cards are widely used in India for driving licenses, ID cards, e-passports, vehicle document smart cards, and voter IDs.

Gemalto (News - Alert) is organizing training sessions for its customers to help them understand the importance of contactless smart cards. During the forecast period, the adoption of contactless smart cards will increase in the government, healthcare, transportation, and defense sectors in developing countries such as Brazil.

Some of the top vendors in the global smart card market in government sector as researched by Technavio analysts are:

  • Gemalto
  • Giesecke & Devrient (News - Alert)
  • Oberthur Technologies
  • Safran
  • Watchdata

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About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

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