News

Smart Insights Weekly is a weekly newsletter covering the smart card industry, its businesses, its technologies, and of course, its markets as well as its technology suppliers. Smart Insights covers all the major trends in the industry, it encompasses worldwide business, public and private standardization bodies, industry analysts and also the people belonging to the Smart Card Industry community.

Smart Insights Reports cover the smart card or secure transaction industry. They are industry reports covering a technology, a geographical area or a major issue in the industry. Smart Insights Reports include qualitative and quantitative analysis. They are built on a combination of primary research and secondary research, supported by an intimate knowledge thanks to years of experience in the smart card industry.

Smart Insights publications are brought to you by Thierry Spanjaard who has more than 20 years experience in the industry, in a variety of positions.

Smart Insights: facts . intelligence . now

Smart Insights Weekly is distributed weekly by email on a subscription basis
To subscribe www.smartinsights.net/subscribe

Smart Insights Reports are available from our on-line shop:
Visit the shop http://www.smartinsights.net/reports/

“Global Secure USB TokenMarket 2010”, a just-published Smart Insights Report,focuses on the market for Secure USB Tokens, and details the variousmarket segments addressed by the technology.

more...

Atmel has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Smart Card (SMS) business based in Rousset, France and East Kilbride, UK to Inside Contactless following the completion of the information and consultation process with the works council of Atmel Rousset in France (the "Works Council"). As previously announced, Inside signed the agreement on May 2, 2010 subject to acceptance by Atmel following completion of the information and consultation process with the Works Council (cf. Smart Insights Weekly #10-18).

more...

Out of the finalists announced last April (cf. Smart Insights Weekly #10-13), the NFC Forum just announced the winners of the NFC Forum Global Competition 2010. The NFC Forum Global Competition promotes the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary NFC services by both commercial and academic developers. The Commercial Track is for business ideas that address a specific market, business, or consumer need or want. The Research Track is open to the academic community, including university student teams and institutions. Winners in each track receive cash prizes: first-place receives EUR 5 000, second-place EUR 1 500, and third-place EUR 1 000.

more...

SIMalliance, the global association of SIM card manufacturers, announces the annualized sales figures for the SIM industry for 2009. The SIM card industry has weathered the financial storm comparatively well, showing a 2009 growth rate of 10%. Worldwide, the industry shipped 3.4-billion units last year, of which 3.1-billion (90%) came from SIMalliance member firms.

more...

During a recent Mobey Forum conference in Helsinki, Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president for markets at Nokia, has announced that they will be offering the Near Field Communication (NFC) feature in all of their new Symbian smartphones from next year onwards. However NFC features may, or may not, be included in all country variants.

more...

Sony just announced the RC-S965 FeliCa Lite Chip, a contactless IC card chip that includes an optimized file system and streamlined security functions. The RC-S965 is ideal for various applications including membership ID cards, sales promotions, game applications and so on. As a new member of the FeliCa product lineup, the low-cost RC-S965 proves to be a suitable product for setting up low-priced, contactless IC card systems.

more...

For countries around the world, EMV is a long foregone conclusion while the US remains the lone industrialized nation with no plans for broad acceptance of EMV. As a result, US issuers, merchants and processors have become outsiders looking in on an industry that has moved on without them. However, the biggest loser in the battle over EMV in the US is the consumer who is left with fewer and fewer payment options while traveling abroad.

more...

H-online, a security oriented website controlled by Heise Medien International, from Germany, announced a vulnerability in Kobil readers had been found. According to this source, attackers could exploit this to read PINs such as those used for digital document signatures or to display forged data on-screen. To prevent such intrusions from happening, smartcard readers are usually subjected to a special security check before they are approved. Several leading institutions had tested the Kobil readers and confirmed that they complied with the strict German Signature Law (SigG) including the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The German Central Credit Committee (Zentraler Kreditausschuss, ZKA) also approved the TriB@nk device for use with the "Geldkarte" application, and Secoder, the successor of HBCI, for home banking.

more...

According to Shenzhen Economic Daily, China Mobile may suspend its mobile payment solution launched in 2009 which was based on the RF-SIM technology and replace it with China UnionPay’s 13.56 MHz mobile payment solution. China Mobile has not officially announced the change.

more...

The government has said it will save GBP 86 million (EUR 101.4 million) and the public will save more than GBP 800 million (EUR 943.1 million) in fees from the abolition of identity cards.

more...