**Source: Phoenix Planning & Evaluation
 

As you can tell from these statistics, the U.S. is lagging far behind. This is because of the significant investment in an extensive magnetic stripe-based infrastructure, and the availability of reliable and low cost on-line telecommunications services and the lack of smart card applications that have been implemented. Another limiting factor is the lack of smart card readers for the individual users p.c. Most smart cards require the existence of one of these devices. Although relatively inexpensive (About $20), most people do not have a reason for the smart cards use. The following graph also represents some other import statistics about smart cards:
In 1996, approximately 805 million smart cards were issued, with an estimated 2.8 billion to be distributed in 2000. The distribution is:**

*In millions

This graph only represent figures up the year 2000. However, what about figures after 2000? The forecast predicts smart card shipments in North America will grow to 58 million this year and 85 million in 2003.

The U.S. Federal Government has taken a massive step by announcing that starting in FY 2001, that it would start issuing 4.3 million Common Access Cards (CAC) to all DOD military personnel. This process is being accelerated because of the Sept 11 attacks. These cards will be used to access buildings, including the Pentagon, and to logon to networks, including access to encrypted e-mail and online transactions. They will also carry the individuals medical and personnel data. These cards use PKI for authentication. These will be used for encryption, and digital signing certificates. Department Of Defense (DOD) is planning to issue 23 million cards to Military dependents, Civilian contractors and retirees. The proposed price is approximately $35 million dollars based on the average of $8-$9 a card. Other countries in Europe and Asia have expressed interest for their military using this concept. Other agencies inside the U.S. Federal Government are or have been in the planning states of issuing smart cards with features similar to those of the CAC’s.

Meanwhile, there is been a flood of interest from governments and the airline industry worldwide ever since the September 11 attacks and then recent surge of security hacks into government and civilian corporations. This will ultimately lead to increased orders for smart cards and the need to improve upon smart card applications and security. This is going to be a boom for smart card manufactures and associated software vendors such as Gemplus, and Schlumbeger Sema. Sales from these two giants that together own about 85 percent of the market have been down following a yearlong slump for mobile telephones and the slow take-off of chip-based bankcards in the United States. Most smart cards applications rely on revenue from the financial industry and Government. In France, every Visa Debit card (over 25 million) has a chip on it.
In Germany, about 40 million bankcards have been issued. The countries with national health care such as Germany have issued cards to every citizen (80 million) .

Commercial applications include small dish TV satellite receivers. These devices use a smart card as its removable security element and subscription information. The telecommunications world up which up to last year was biggest user of smart cards. The transportation community especially mass transits and now some U.S. airlines are starting to use and benefit from smart card technology. The use of Biometrics for smart cards application in now being pursued. This will mean that an individual will be identified by his/her hand or fingerprint, retinal scanning and voice recognition. Although it is still in its infancy, some experts have expressed concerns that this type of application has moral implications such as individual’s privacy.


 

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