Fishing for information, I saw a trade article quoting a Gemplus official to the effect that password problems cost large companies about $200 per employee per year. That may be why another article cited about $140 as the top of the range to sell biometrics on this basis.
If that is what is driving the market right now, it helps explain why the F3 is dead in the water in enterprise security along with Sony Puppy and other onboard CPU devices. It also helps explain why the IDT device is being well received. Whether it wins PC Magazine top honors or not, it is saving the customers money. (I don't think the NRID product, which lacks hardware, does that -- and the U r U device is more like $200 per unit.)
On the other hand, F3 is probably quite well suited for access and control, where we see it getting a good reception in the O'Hare pilot.
One other minor find: In this week's New Yorker, IBM has run a full page ad on one of their photogenic employees, with this description to show what a cool company they are: He's described as "Biometric Specialist . . . Job Description: Design applications to recognize humans via hand geometry, voice and facial patterns. Experience: Helped a national government develop a system to verify voter identity and protect against fraud. Quote: 'You're one in a million'", etc., etc. When you see this stuff in ads, both broadcast and print, you know it's going mainstream.
I see a lot of Yahoo bitching about Fowler. Well, as incompetent as he may be, Identix acquired Identicator, and not the other way around. Somewhere, accidentally, he must be doing something right. |
