Frost: US$ 1.9 billion smart card market in 2009

Smart Insights - smart card industry newsletter: telecoms, payment, identity:
The overall smartcards market, including contact and contactless cards, was worth US$ 1.9 billion (EUR 1.47 billion) in 2009, Frost & Sullivan said. Contactless cards accounted for 23% of the overall shipment in 2009, with this figure expected to reach 50% in 2016.

Contactless smart cards unit shipment is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.4% from 590 million in 2009 to 1.9 billion units by 2016. Worth US$ 775 million (EUR 600 million) last year, this market is expected to generate revenues at just over US$ 2 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) by the end of 2016 at a CAGR of 13%. Frost and Sullivan anticipates that, in Asia Pacific, large-scale mobile NFC deployments will take place in the next one to two years. NFC on mobile devices will also prompt renewed interest in contactless bank credit and debit cards with security issues having been ironed out.