Biometic ID technology market set to explode
Will almost triple over next three years, analyst says Kevin Restivo, Financial Post
Published: Tuesday, March 14, 2006
The market for biometric identification technology will almost triple over the next three years as banks try to stop thieves from stealing personal information and airports look to cut down security line wait times.
Rob Allen, an analyst with tech consultancy Frost & Sullivan, predicts the market for biometric technology in North America will reach US$1.4-billion by 2008, up from about US$527-million in 2004, the latest available figures from the Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm.
Biometric technology identifies people by such physical characteristic as voice or fingerprints.
Various levels of government in the United States are buying biometric systems to weed out potential terrorists. Federal agencies, for example, are using biometrics to identify and track people as well as restrict access to important government buildings.
The impetus for most of this is the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"[Governments] are definitely going to be the big adopters," Mr. Allen said. "[But] it's still too expensive for most organizations to implement."
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has implemented fingerprint technology that prevents unauthorized access to restricted areas. The authority is responsible for screening equipment at airports -- including explosives detection systems -- and for working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to have armed officers on board aircraft.
Toronto-based Bioscrypt Inc. sells systems to organizations so employees have access to areas based on biometric information.
"I would still say [biometric systems] are more of a commercial application," said Matthew Bogart, a spokesman for Bioscrypt.
Mr. Allen, however, said biometric technology is being used at some U.S. grocery stores to speed up transaction processing times. Pay By Touch, a San Francisco-based company, offers technology that allows consumers to pay for goods by touching a finger on a scanner at a store checkout.
Banks are experimenting with biometric technology to help cut down on US$2-billion of credit-card fraud that occurred globally last year.
Demand for biometric technology is expected to surge, too, because key international patents, held by New Jersey-based Iridian Systems Inc., are set to expire in February, 2007, officially opening up the field to competitors. Iridian holds a general patent for iris scan systems and used the threat of lawsuits in past to scare off potential competitors.
The Iridian patent expired in the United States last year.
Sensing a growth opportunity, tech vendors, such as IBM Corp., now offer biometric-related products, Mr. Allen said. Lenovo Inc., which bought IBM's struggling computer hardware division last year, has built fingerprint-identification technology into more than one billion laptops.
More than 60 vendors and more than 140 companies worldwide offer biometric-related products and services -- too many, in Mr. Allen's opinion, as most biometric tech suppliers are not yet profitable. |
