Biometric Market Data:
The following information is compiled from marketing and research firms and is publicly available from their respective Web sites and/or publications:
Bloomberg
Currently a $25 million-a-year industry, biometrics will, by some estimates, expand to $1 billion by the year 2000. Some predict the rush to install biometrics security systems will replace the Year 2000 computer crisis as the most pressing high-tech project once the millennium arrives.
CBS/Marketwatch
U.S. online commerce hit $43 billion last year and is growing to $1.3 trillion in 2003. CBS/Marketwatch reports that the number one cause for concern is security.
CardTech/SecurTech (CT/ST)
Total sales of biometric hardware were over US $16 million in 1996, according to CardTech/SecurTech, a Bethesda, MD, consulting firm. Biometrics is being actively deployed in employee and immigration identification, for financial transactions, and for remote network logons and Internet access. Fenn at Gartner said acceptance is inevitable: "Within two years most organizations will have to take a look at it and see how it fits into their overall security."
Biometric firms quietly rang up about US $140 million in sales last year ? $25 million of which went for uses outside law enforcement ? and analysts predict that the industry will grow to nearly US $1 billion in annual sales by 2001.
Faulkner & Gray
Biometric firms quietly rang up about $440 million in sales last year ? $25 million of which went for uses outside law enforcement ? and analysts predict that the industry will grow to nearly $1 billion in annual sales by 2001.
Frost & Sullivan
According to recent strategic research by Frost & Sullivan, the World Biometric Identification Markets ? specifically the equipment and software markets ? are expected to grow from US $103 million in revenues in 1996 to US $170 million in 2003, a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 percent over the forecast period. Several factors characterize the current competitive environment of the biometrics industry, including market fragmentation, uncertain industry structure, and limited financial resources.
The automatic identification industry is continuously evolving. Traditional auto ID technologies such as bar codes, OCR and magnetic stripes may be seeing some of their end-user market shares shaken up by the advent of more sophisticated RFID, smart card and biometric technologies. Experts foresee all three specialized auto ID technologies developing into a several-billion-dollar market within the next five years.
A new strategic study by marketing consultancy Frost & Sullivan values revenues in the European access control systems market at US $1.27 billion in 1996, and predicts these values to reach US $1.96 billion by the year 2003. These values exclude equipment for area surveillance monitoring.
San Francisco-based market research firm Frost & Sullivan says the global market for automatic identification equipment, including biometrics, was US $2.2 billion last year. It is expected to surpass US $100 billion in two years.
Physical and software tokens will garner an increasing share of an authentication market growing at a compound annual rate of 42% through 2005, when it should reach $4 billion.
The Gartner Group
"According to Fenn's research, biometric logon for information access purposes (network logon, laptop protection, and so on) will be used by 15 percent of Fortune 1000 companies by 2002." ? Jackie Fenn, Gartner Group Vice President and Research Fellow, Advanced Technologies
According to an April 1998 report by Datquest, the worldwide installed base of personal computers and office workstations (PCs) totaled more than 270 million in 1997. New computer purchases exceeded 80 million in 1997 and are projected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15% from 1997 to 2002.
In January of 1998, biometrics was listed as number one in The Gartner Group?s "Top Ten Technologies to Watch for 1998." Security related expenditures for IS markets are forecast to exceed $9 billion in 1999, over $15 billion in the year 2000, and over $20 billion in year 2002. An increasing percentage of this will be spent on biometrics.
Some health care providers are finding that passwords alone won't provide adequate security and that they're cumbersome for physicians who need to log on repeatedly to access multiple applications. According to a report from Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Group Inc., biometric identification is the only technology that will meet proposed privacy standards and win physician support.
Forgotten passwords cost millions of dollars annually in help-desk costs and lost productivity...Industry estimates say 20 percent to 50 percent of all calls to company help desks are from people needing their passwords reset. According to the Gartner Group, an organization with 2,500 desktop computers can spend more than $850,000 a year resetting passwords.
International Biometric Group
For companies, agencies, or individuals who need to understand the biometric industry but don't have the time or resources to do months of research, the Biometric Market Report 2000 is invaluable. Highlights include:
Revenue data on publicly and privately held biometric companies
Revenue figures dating from 1998
Revenue projections by market segment through 2003
Future trends in biometrics
Company profiles
Analysis of market segments, including physical access, PC-network access, financial, medical, and transportation
Biometric terminology and concepts
Discussion of biometric technologies, including finger, face, voice, iris, retina, hand, and signature
This 42-page analysis is essential for information security professionals, investment researchers, network administrators, companies considering a biometric solution for their authentication problems, and anyone looking for top-level insider information on the biometric market.
Mentis Corporation
The recently released Mentis Corporation Report, "Beyond the PIN: Evolving Strategies and Implementations of Biometrics-Based Recognition for Financial Services," reports that the financial services industry will continue to increase investing in biometric technology. The report provides an overview of biometric technology, as well as an analysis of the trends in biometrics usage within the financial service industry.
Estimated usage of biometrics is predicted to increase from 8,550 devices in use in 1996 to more than 50,000 in the year 2000 across all industries. While revenue for this developing set of technologies is estimated to be $100 million in 1998, the future will hold significant gains as product accuracy improves and costs decline.
While financial services are not as active in their acquisition of biometric technology as some other industries, devices are currently being employed for four applications: physical access control; electronic access control; check, credit card, and teller fraud; and automated teller machine (ATM) fraud. The incorporation of biometrics for these applications increases the accuracy of user identification, thus reducing losses incurred from authorized access/use. "The financial community is realizing the benefits that the application of biometrics can offer, especially for the larger organizations," stated Kimberly Harris, Research Analyst.
Many barriers, such as consumer reluctance, questionable accuracy, high costs, and opposition by various groups (i.e., religious and political) exist to widespread usage of biometrics. As the technology advances and prices decline, biometrics will become more feasible for the financial services industry.
There has been speculation within the financial industry that biometrics will inevitably replace traditional identification methods, such as passwords and personal identification numbers. "Although biometrics allow more accurate customer identification, it is unlikely that they will be widely used in this capacity before the year 2000," remarks Harris. Consumer opposition may be difficult to overturn. Rather, the financial services industry will predominantly employ biometrics for physical access control.
Reuters
"Investment banking firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. Thursday said it expects a five-year $1.5 trillion boom in business-to-business e-commerce in industries ranging from automobiles to medical equipment. In a report on the sector, Goldman says that the retail sector, with sites like Yahoo! Inc. and eBay Inc., has gotten most of the attention, but the business-oriented side 'is poised for equally explosive growth.' Goldman said it sees the $1.5 trillion total being reached by 2004, and it already estimates that businesses generated $39 billion from e-commerce applications last year and $114 billion this year." ? Reuters, 9/16/99
SRI Consulting
David Tong, a senior analyst at SRI Consulting, estimates that the biometrics market isalready (1997) worth roughly $250 million.
VeriSign
"Ultimately, biometric mechanisms and PKI are truly complimentary technologies." ? Michael Baum, Vice President, VeriSign
Visa
"Enhancing PKI with biometrics would yield stronger authentication of the individual?The inverse, enhancing biometrics with PKI, would be even more powerful. Adding public-key cryptography to the biometric device would increase the levels of trust and privacy, and boost the overall security of they system." ? Paul Guthrie, Vice President, Visa
The Yankee Group
The Yankee Group, a Boston consulting firm, estimates that law enforcement agencies, corporations and computer firms spent more than US $500 million for fingerprint scanners and other biometric devices in 1995. It projected sales to grow at better than 40 percent a year.
An interesting site to visit is:
bioapi.org
You can learn more about what this industry organization is doing to promote the use and unification of Biometric standards.
Regards, pmcw |
