The market for smart cards and secure ICs achieved double-digit year-over-year growth for shipments in 2011, demonstrating increases of 16% and 15%, respectively, according to ABI Research
Volumes continued ramping up, driven by further mobile penetration, the ongoing developments in the SIM card sector and the number of countries migrating to EMV. The top three applications – government ID, payment cards and SIM – accounted for 88% of the total seven billion smart cards shipped in 2011. Further adoption in contactless cards added increased value to the market, as will the greater demand for multi-application cards.


Evolis introduced its new card printer, coined Primacy, suited for instantly personalizing cards in medium to large runs, single or dual-sided and for a range of applications.
HSBC announced that it will begin the conversion to contactless technology this month, replacing all customer banking debit cards, according to ThinkMoney.com.



