AsIs, Inc. Presents an Analysis of the U.S. Smart Card Market and Industry With a View to the Coming ID Card Mandate.

Business Editors

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2001

Smart cards have existed since the 1970's, and they are used extensively for transportation, health systems, and, above all, ID cards throughout the world.

Germany, for example, has issued some 80 million smart cards for its health systems alone. But the free-market economy model of commerce in the United States has not seen any advantage to employing smart cards on any significant scale. The smart card industry, in the interim, has continued to advance the smart card technology to a point where highly complex, multi-application microchips can provide both data storage and data exchange options on a single smart card. One single multi-application smart card is capable of holding up to 64 Mb of data, serving for identification, commerce, transportation, and social services requirements.

Our market report focuses on the impact that the events of September 11, 2001 will take on the identification smart card market in the United States. The technology already exists to put in place a State or Federal ID card system. Such systems have been used extensively for some years in Europe where government mandates define many technology implementations. The United States has the benefit of entering the security smart card market at an advanced stage of the available technology, making use not only of simple ID systems, but of much more complex, multi-application smart cards that can, for example, include biometric information.

This new market report from AsIs forecasts the usage of smart cards in the United States and identifies several imminent growth areas including government, healthcare, and education. Government ID card shipments are expected to exceed 350 million units through 2005, with a growth rate of 136% over the forecast period (2000 through 2005). In 2002 shipments of State and Federal smart card ID cards will exceed banking-related smart cards by almost

40 million units.

Our approach to investigating the market for smart cards is unique in that it concentrates on a broad review of the various players as to industry segments, required partnerships, and appropriate channels. The assessment is intended to be an overview analysis. Our purpose is to enable the reader to make use of his or her own perspective in their analysis of the smart card marketplace.

AsIs is a consulting corporation, focused on the Embedded Marketplace, providing Strategic Business and Marketing Development in the form of Business Model Strategies, Product Positioning & Development Support, Market Research and Analysis & Technical Marketing. Our Market Reports quantify emerging technologies and complement our FasTrak(TM) Strategic Positioning Reports that provide OEMs the foundation for a successful entry into markets with new products. All our reports are available as a one-time purchase or on a subscription basis.

www.asisinc.com