Worldwide Chip Card Market Forecast to Reach $6.8 Billion by 2002, According to GartnerGroup's Dataquest; New Report Provides Detailed Five-Year Forecast for the Industry. November 3, 1998
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge Corporation -- Driven by strong sales in Europe, the worldwide chip card market reached $1.4 billion in 1997, and the market is forecast to continue to show strong growth with revenue reaching $6.8 billion in 2002, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. (NYSE:IT).
Europe was the No. 1 region for chip card revenue, accounting for 76.8 percent of the worldwide market in 1997. Dataquest analysts said other regions will begin to see increased chip card revenue.
By 2002, Europe's share of worldwide chip card revenue will decline to 47.8 percent, while Asia/Pacific will be the No. 2 region with 30.1 percent of worldwide sales. The Americas (not including the United States) will account for 8.6 percent of sales in 2002, and the United States will have 7.8 percent of chip card revenue.
"Europe is the leading region in every chip card application, from public pay phone cards to wireless communication cards," said Jonathan Cassell, industry analyst in Dataquest's Semiconductor Application Markets Worldwide program.
"Europe's leadership will continue throughout Dataquest's five-year forecast. Major chip card markets, such as France and Germany, will continue to consume large quantities of various types of cards."
The chip card is the highest-volume electronics end product in the world today. Dataquest estimates that 462 million cards were sold in 1997. The number of chip cards sold in 1997 was about 13 times the number of cellular phones manufactured, about 12 times the number of audio CD players made, and about 11 times the number of PCs produced.
Chip cards can perform various duties such as pocket change, paper money, debit and credit cards, acting as a means of identification, access, or payment.
"Semiconductor technology is driving chip card market growth, with more powerful and lower-cost chips allowing the product to be used in more applications and by a greater percentage of the worldwide population," said Cassell. "Some of the biggest growth opportunities for semiconductor vendors will be for microcontroller chips used in various types of smart cards. "
Smart cards accounted for 56.2 percent of chip card revenue in 1997. Dataquest projects smart card revenue to represent 70 percent of the market by 2002. More memory cards were shipped than smart cards in 1997, but these cards are less expensive than smart cards, so memory card revenue will continue to trail the revenue from smart cards.
The most popular chip card is from the memory card segment. Pay phone cards led the industry with 67.7 percent of the chip cards shipped in 1997.
Dataquest defines a smart card as a chip card including embedded microcontroller silicon. A memory card is defined as a chip card embedding silicon memory and possibly other logical functions (including cryptography). Memory cards are usually EEPROM-based.
Additional information on the chip card market is available in the Dataquest Focus Report "The Chip Card Evolution: Chip Cards Progress toward Ubiquity." This report covers the market for chip cards and the semiconductors used in them. The report includes a detailed forecast on the chip card market through 2002.
This report is produced by Dataquest's Semiconductor Application Markets Worldwide program. This program provides strategic planning information about the electronic systems in which semiconductors are used, including system production forecasts, accompanying chip demand, and identification of system features and implementation trends affecting the chips needed in future systems.
More information on this program is available on Dataquest's Web site at dataquest.com.
To purchase the report or subscribe to this program, please call 800/419-DATA, or 408/468-8009. More information about Dataquest's programs, descriptions of recent research reports, and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at dataquest.com.
GartnerGroup's Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors of the global information technology industry.
As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory services, measurement, research, decision support, analysis, and consulting.
Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup is at the center of a global community with more than 11,000 client organizations served by analysts in 80 locations worldwide. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at gartner.com.
CONTACT: Dataquest Inc. | Tom McCall, 408/468-8312 | tom.mccall@gartner.com |
