2010-08-09 03:39:09 -
South Korea Smart Cards Market - a new market research report on companiesandmarkets.com
South Korea Smart Cards Market provides an in-depth analysis of the market drivers and restraints, industry trends, and competitive environment, in addition to the industry challenges and issues faced by the market participants. In this research, expert analysts thoroughly examine the following smart cards, e - passports, and government ID.
High adoption levels have enabled the South Korea smart card market to take huge strides forward. The country has been touted as a trail blazer and key smart card applications have reached near saturation point, mainly due to prolific uptake in telecommunications, banking and payments, transportation, and corporate IDs. The Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) mandate for South Korea was in 2005 and then in 2008. All banking cards issued currently
are smart card based. With the banking sector conforming to EMV norms, smart card participants are looking at convergence on to a different form factor as the next big project. The government ID application still occupies less than 10 percent of the total unit shipments of smart cards in South Korea. In 2011, government employee ID cards will become mandatory thereby providing the initial jump for the government ID applications. South Korea had a number of multi application-based smart card projects, which had placed it at the cutting edge of automatic identification projects. In the past, interoperability had been a key issue, particularly in the transit sector. However, companies have realized the need and advantage for interoperability and are utilizing common platforms to allow easy migration of new applications and systems. To sustain the steady growth rate, the country is depending on further technological development.
Though market prospects look upbeat, there are some challenges reining in market penetration. Smart cards have remained confined to military applications and government employee IDs. Besides, barriers to entry for foreign participants have also contributed to slowing the pace of market growth. The transit project was initiated by the South Korean Government and most of the target suppliers were local participants. Observations reveal that across all applications, local participants have an edge over foreign competitors.
Current market conditions in South Korea as well as in other Tier I countries such as Japan and Taiwan indicate that the mobile phone is the most appropriate form factor for convergence. The mobile subscription penetration rate is more than 90 percent in South Korea today, reducing the number of new mobile subscriptions being added each year. SIM applications, which are usually the largest share of smart card applications in most countries, are witnessing a very moderate growth rate. This can be attributed to the high penetration rate in the country and the prevalence of 128 kb cards in the market, which are already able to host a number of applications, such as e - purse and high-speed web browsing functionalities. New additions have been in the range of 2 million-3 million per year, but SIM unit shipments are now more reliant on the churn rates of respective mobile operators rather than the new additions. The introduction of a new tool for mobile applications which would necessitate higher capacity SIM would again provide high growth for SIM unit shipments in the country. Contactless payments are already underway and it is only a matter of time before the mobile phone becomes the standard medium for financial transactions.
Market Sectors
Smart cards
E - passports
Government ID
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