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Shipments are expected to be up by close to 12% in 2015, and to continue growing in 2016, reaching about 9.8 billion units. Mangenot: “The key drivers of this growth are firstly the migration of simple magnetic strip cards to “EMV” cards, equipped with a chip. Secondly, the number of embedded secure elements in mobile phones, tablets, navigation devices – which are increasingly used for mobile applications of all kinds, most notably mobile financial services – has also risen considerably.”
Positive results are supported by increased demand for SIM cards. The telecom market remains healthy and has been steadily increasing in volume with an estimate of 5.45 billion SIM cards shipped in 2015.
With regards to the payment market, the US migration from magnetic stripe payment cards towards secure EMV chip cards has remained a major growth factor in 2015. The double-digit growth for payments is even stronger in China, which proved instrumental in boosting demand; India is following this trend. Overall, the growth for contactless payment cards has been slightly higher than for contact cards. The progression of contactless payment cards is more pronounced outside of the US, which made the choice of deploying EMV contact cards.
Eurosmart confirms the sustained upward trend for 2015 and 2016 in the eGovernment and healthcare sectors. “Security and the protection of personal data and privacy are especially important when it comes to sensitive data regarding identity and authentication. For example, eBorder and eVisa projects require the highest level of security possible”, Mangenot pointed out “and the smart security industry has been providing solutions that prevent security breaches.”
2015 and 2016 forecasts also confirm the increased number of secure elements shipped to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). Pushed by the development of mobile applications, more and more device manufacturers integrate embedded secure elements in connected devices, such as watches or wearables. In 2015, the growth in this market is forecast to reach 63% and will remain strong in 2016.
More information on the market figures are available here