 CCID Consulting just released its latest report on China's smart card market.
According to CCID, in 2008, mobile communications cards' shipment exceeded
that of 2007. But, with the gradual maturity of the ID card market, the number of new cards issued has been decreasing sharply which limited the market's growth.
Affected by this, the sales volume of China's smart card market had negative growth in 2008, which was the first time for the market to have negative growth in the past five years. In the past few years, mobile communications cards occupied the largest segment of smart cards, comprising SIM cards, UIM cards (for CDMA) and PIM
cards (for PHS).
In non-telecom field, traffic cards and social security cards were picking up fast, and social security cards became the main driving force for CPU card market's sales revenue to a certain degree. By the end of September 2008, the second phrase of smart ID cards' had reached 750 million sets since March 2004.
CCID anticipates a growth of smart card with multiple functions, which have been the focus of major smart card companies, especially with the integration of smart card and mobile payment. Also, smart card application will extend to personal identification and automatic management to facilitate enterprise informatization.
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