[attachment=6900]
smart card full report


Abstract

Organizations have been experimenting with smart cards for almost thirty years, yet they are not yet pervasively used particularly in the North American market. Smart cards offer exciting possibilities for convenience, accuracy, customization, data security and coreduction for individuals and organizations.

There have, however, been many barriers to the broad diffusion of smart cards such as
deposit insurance liability, data accuracy, transaction anonymity, fraud risk, the small number of application developers and the difficulties associated with changing people's habits and expectations.

Today, Sun Microsystems Java software platform removes or reduces many of the problems faced by earlier smart card implementations. The largest players in the smart card industry are working toward standardizing on Java because of the advantages inherent in its design such as security, network awareness and scalability. In addition, any Java programmer can potentially become a smart card application developer.

As a result, we believe that Java will be a significant factor in fueling the smart card industry.