The largest markets will be in the prepayment applications, followed by access control, and electronic cash applications. According to a recent study from Dataquest, the overall market for memory and microprocessor-based cards will grow from 544 million units in 1995 to 3.4 billion units by 2001. Of that figure, microprocessor-based smart cards, which accounted for only 84 million units in 1995 will grow to 1.2 billion units in 2001. The reason for this growth is smart cards' intrinsic portability and security. In addition, as the recent growth of palmtop computers shows, people are looking for smaller and smaller ways to carry their data with them.
Smart cards are another step in that direction.
Applications are the driving force behind the new smart card market. The choice of applications will be the strategic decision for implementers and adopters. Prepayment for services, a la the prepaid phone cards used today. Credit, debit and e-purse cards. This last category enables people to put value onto the cards themselves from their ATM machine.