LONDON - October 12, 2012--Adoption and migration to next generation smart national ID cards continues its strong growth, driving government-issued smart card shipments to 765 million in 2017. National ID cards will account for the lion’s share of shipments, jumping from 37% in 2012 to 50% in 2017. This is driven by new adoption and migration to next generation credentials in Poland, Russia, Brazil, France, China, and Indonesia amongst other countries. The remaining shipments were utilized within driver’s licenses, healthcare and voter’s cards, as well as e-passports.

All of the above projects are, or will, use high-end microcontroller and pure contactless or dual interface technology. This improves security and enables multi-application functionality, an important factor for governments looking to maximize the potential return from heavy investment into new smart credentials by broadening the number of applications served by a single card.

Research analyst Phil Sealy comments, “For the overall government ID market, the factors of growth paired with higher-end adoption will be music to IC and smart card vendors ears. Not only are market volumes growing, but also revenues will be maintained at a high level with next to no reduction in ASP’s as governments look to adopt the most up-to-date and advanced smart card technology. The complexity of projects and the online/offline nature of multi-application creates further revenue streams for vendors through management and maintenance of software and services as partnering integrators.”

Practice director John Devlin adds, “The Indonesian national ID card is of particular interest, due to its anticipated speed to market. State-owned PNRI (the national ID smart card supplier) formed a consortium consisting of L1 Identity, for biometric capture devices, system integration from Biomorf Lone Indonesia, IT hardware from HP, and ICs from NXP. All involved are well-established and recognized industry leaders ensuring quick turnaround and production of a product at the highest level. In just under 12 months the biometric enrollment of 100 million citizens was completed.”

ABI Research’s market data report, “Government and Healthcare Citizen ID Cards” addresses the barriers and drivers of planning and deploying infrastructure and the issuance of citizen-deployed documents and analysis of the most likely future market changes and developments.

It is part of ABI Research’s Government & Healthcare ID Technologies and Safe Cities Research Services, which include Research Reports, Market Data, Insights, and Competitive Assessments.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.