Hi,
I have been looking at the SMART CARD market for potential gorrillas, or even good investment candidates.
It seems that SMART CARDS are going to be like modems, with open standards, precluding a classic gorrilla like MSFT, being created.
On the other hand it seems like it's going to be a tremendous growth market since SMART CARDS are practical and since there are so many big co's pushing for the technology to succeed (companies like VISA, MASTER CARD, MSFT, IBM, HWP, BULL (the french IBM), AT&T, BELL CANADA (BCE), the US GOV. etc...)
If any of you have any insights into the smart card market, I'd very much like to hear from you.
My favorite in this field is GEMPLUS (the leading smart card maker) which is not public yet.
GEMPLUS and Schlumberger Ltd. N.V. (NYSE - SLB) control about 80% of the smart card market. However SLB is a large oil services company
and it's smart card division is a small part of their company.
Another play is SCM (SCMM - NASDAQ), which went public not too long ago. They make smart card readers that interface with PC's. They are supposed to be the dominant company for that. On the other hand, I'm kind of worried about PC hardware companies given the uncertainties about where the (classic) PC market is heading.
Chris
cm2000@i-2000.com |
