Rob,
I'd say that it is still too early to tell whether biometrics catch on or not over ecommerce. When the biometric cost line, now dropping pretty fast, is recognized as crossing under the benefits line (always rising as new Internet connections are being made and new vulnerabilities arise), it could be adopted explosively on a systemwide basis.
I think IDX could help this equation along by doing a lot more education aimed at IT systems guys, because they just don't have enough information to appreciate the sophistication of the technology. It really seems to me that IDX is so aware of the safeguards and advantages that they think everyone else is, too. Well, I doubt that the CPQ sales force knows it as well as they do, and the potential end users sure as hell don't.
Whether or not the Internet takes off, I think access control has a lot of possibilities. There, the door owner/user gets a direct benefit, unlike the PC fingerscanner owner/user who already knows who he is and is just getting the equipment distributed to him because merchants, banks, and credit card issuers need to be protected -- or help desk costs reduced. (Yeah, there are some Password Bank conveniences, but they won't drive the mass market.) However, I think the technology/cost equation there is still a little further away.
On another topic, anyone notice the bubble in DLSC? It touched $15 (over $200M market cap) with not only no sales, but no engineered product. The company is hyping sales calls, which is a new low, to a naive Canadian Francophone population. |
