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According to the report, sales of biometric devices across Europe amassed USD32.8 million in 1999 and will swell to USD158.9 million by the end of 2006. The market is just beginning to enter the mainstream as biometric devices become more universally established and public awareness about the technology's benefits rises.
Biometrics is a method of providing authentication through measurable physical characteristics. The technologies involved include voice recognition, iris scans and fingerprint scans. Since biometric authentication is based on an individual's physical characteristics it is generally considered to be the most secure.
Frost and Sullivan predicts that biometry sales will be energised by the recent agreement on a standard Application Programming Interface (API), which will enable software developers to incorporate biometric products into other packages.
Microsoft has acquired biometric authentication technology from California based I/O Software and has plans to integrate I/O's security software capabilities into its Windows operating system, giving further encouragement to the market.
The growing fear of fraud, intensified by the explosion of e-commerce usage, is the main driver fuelling growth in the European biometric identification market.
The star performer in the European biometrics ID market is the fingerprint sector. Fingerprint chip devices, in particular, are expected to be in high demand over the coming years. Traditionally fingerprints have been considered one of the most marketable biometrics solutions. By the end of 2006, fingerprint technologies will account for nearly half of total sales in the biometric ID market, with voice authentication coming in second.
Frost and Sullivan's report indicates that complementary technologies, in particular smart cards and mobile telecommunications, hold the key to the development of the biometrics market over the next five years.
More information on biometrics is available from http://www.biometrics.org
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