Smart cards are a thriving industry!

How do we know this to be the case? Well, if we look at the landscape of a typical industry sector, we see in smart cards the same characteristics we would witness in any other established and mature market.

For instance, companies have been created and thrive financially, based solely on the technology itself. These companies compete fiercely for a market share and brand leadership. Aggressive actions, such as mergers and acquisitions, and rigorous oversight of intellectual property rights are commonplace in the quest to increase both the industry and shareholder value. Dedicated industry analysts have built careers by following market movements and advances in the technology, and by prognosticating its future potential.

Trade shows and events have been established in every region of the world, dedicated to the exhibition of the technology and the sharing of information and industry best practices. These highly specialised gatherings not only showcase the latest in smart-card technology, but carefully articulate its relevance to critical sectors such as government, financial, retail, transit, healthcare and mobile telecommunications.

Industry associations have emerged to develop standards for smart cards and the applications that depend on the technology. In addition to developing standards, these birds-of-a-feather organisations have become valuable forums for information exchange between technology providers and end-user communities.

Magazines, periodicals, newsletters and websites cater exclusively to the smart-card industry. At the time of writing, a Google search on ‘smart cards’ resulted in 92 500 000 possible sites to explore.