Secure IC apps will create new revenue opportunity
Emerging IC applications, outside of the traditional card form-factors are set to make up an increasing proportion of the secure IC market landscape, accounting for 11% of total shipments in 2013, increasing to 24% in 2018, says ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).
The primary use cases for ICs outside of card based applications include authentication ICs for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection, use within luxury goods, ICT, CE devices and accessories, pharmaceutical and IT consumables, covering products and components, embedded secure elements for NFC enabled devices and TPMs. Combined it is these emerging applications which will present annual IC revenues in excess of US$2.9 billion in 2018, according to ABI Research.
The threat from counterfeit goods is on the increase and IC technology is seen as a hardware solution to guarantee product/component authenticity, protecting brands and providing a new level of trust between both manufacturer and consumer. On top of this is the increasing installed base of smart devices looking at hardware based security to protect data and manage higher value content.
The growing requirement for hardware security inclusion within smart devices is echoed within the increasing inclusion of NFC embedded secure elements. OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] are also looking at how they can better enable secure management to separate personal and business applications in a BYOD environment.
"The volume of smart devices and the increasing methods of connectivity have now reached a level which presents a substantial opportunity for criminality," says ABI Research Analyst Phil Sealy. "On top of providing a secure location for data storage is the question of how best to store, manage and protect access rights to higher value content and services, including multimedia content and mobile financial services. Device manufacturers are looking to incorporate new hardware security mechanisms to help combat the future threat of a data breach/hack, with IC variants seen as the answer to address future security concerns."
