NXP tops 2012 smart card, IC market

According to the latest report from ABI Research, 7.95 billion smart cards and 7.99 billion IC's were shipped last year—a rise of 9.4 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, YoY. Additionally, IC revenues hit a new high, with NFC RF and secure elements providing a more established proportion of IC revenues that reached $2.69 billion in 2012, noted the market research firm.

In terms of overall IC market shares, NXP moved to the number one position for revenues with about 30 per cent share. Its success in NFC RF and secure element shipments, in excess of 200 million units combined, strengthened its IC revenue position. Samsung maintained the number one position for units shipped with over 2.9 billion SIM cards alone. Infineon has maintained its number one position for the smart card market (excluding NFC and embedded security): it had just over 25 per cent share in revenues, driven by continued strong shipments into SIM, payment and government ID markets.

The top four smart card vendors remain unchanged with Gemalto, Oberthur, G&D and Morpho maintaining the top four market share positions, based on units. Out of these vendors, Oberthur was the only one to maintain its overall market share percentage; the rest dropping slightly. The highest level of vendor movement was within the government ID vertical.

Morpho was the highest climber within the government ID market, gaining an extra three per cent in share compared to 2011. Oberthur dipped slightly, subsequently dropping one position and Gemalto, albeit, losing very slight share, still maintained its number one position. G&D also posted slightly lower shipments than 2011, added IHS.