Card Technology articles from June 2007

Card Technology archives from June 2007

Broken Toilets and Bullet Trains.
June 1, 2007... Akio Shiibashi had wanted to design bullet trains in his native Japan. Instead, the railway he worked for sent him to repair toilets and light fixtures around a few of its stations in Tokyo. He spent weeks cursing his bad luck. He felt he was...

Card Vendors Cut Jobs To Address Profit Squeeze.
June 1, 2007... Facing sinking profits from falling SIM card prices and other competitive pressures, publicly traded smart card vendors Gemalto and Oberthur Card Systems both announced plans to close plants. The vendors in June each said they planned to...

Newswatch: Asia.(briefs)
June 1, 2007... CONTACTLESS TICKETS WILL MAKE OLYMPIC DEBUT IN BEIJING The organizing committee for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will order 7 million to 9 million paper contactless tickets for the event, according to new details that have emerged about the...

Newswatch: Americas.
June 1, 2007... EMV TRIAL TO BEGIN IN CANADA Canadian consumers this fall will begin testing chip-based credit and debit cards in the province of Ontario, a step in the country's move to banking smart cards that carry the international EMV application,...

Germany Balks At Joining E-passport Key Directory.
June 1, 2007... A global certificate directory designed to grease the wheels of the electronic-passport system is up and running. But not all major countries are onboard. Seven countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, are part of the...

Calendar.(Calendar)
June 1, 2007... Sept. 13-15: SmartCards Expo 2007-New Delhi Organized by S. Swarn and Electronics Today, sswarnbom5.vsnl.net www.electronicstoday.org September 19-21: e-Smart 2007 - Sophia Antipolis, France Organized by Strategies Telecoms &...

Newswatch: Europe.
June 1, 2007... NORDIC BANK TO ISSUE READERS FOR WEB BANKING, E-GOVERNMENT Not all banks are shying away from giving their customers smart card readers that connect to the customers' PCs. Sweden-based Nordea Bank intends to begin distributing these types...

Correction.(Correction notice)
June 1, 2007... A chart in the May 2007 edition of Card Technology failed to convert the 2006 sales of France-based point-of-sale terminal vendor Ingenico into U.S. dollars. With the conversion, Ingenico's sales of $635.6 million would have ranked it No. 1 in...

Machine-To-Machine Market Expected To Grow.
June 1, 2007... Vehicle manufacturers are demanding more durable SIM cards they can embed into vehicle consoles to automatically send a variety of information over GSM mobile networks. The so-called "M2M" market has been slow developing, but there appears...

NFC Developers Announce Fees.
June 1, 2007... Makers of mobile phones and other consumer devices supporting Near Field Communication technology would have to pay up to $.49 per device they ship under a licensing-fee program announced in June. Three companies that claim "essential"...

U.S. Employee ID Card Programs Face Delays.
June 1, 2007... Although there's been lots of talk about the expected wave of new U.S. federally mandated ID cards using smart card technology, government agencies have issued few cards to date. Officials have extended deadlines for a number of the...

U.S. ID Score Card.(identification equipment)
June 1, 2007... The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks spurred a range of employee and resident ID card regulations, many using smart cards. But some of the programs are behind schedule. Others likely won't use smart card technology. An overview: [NAME] ...

Contactless In America: Some Banks Have Yet To Climb Aboard.
June 1, 2007... While the buzz around contactless payment in the United States continues, not everyone is convinced the concept will take off anytime soon, especially when it comes to consumers tapping to pay with their mobile phones. Among the more...

SK Telecom Launches Contactless M-Payment.
June 1, 2007... South Korea's largest mobile network operator, SK Telecom, announced it has launched its planned contactless mobile-payment service, enabling subscribers with certain phone models to download a credit application and tap the phones to make...

Ushering In An Era: Breakthrough awards 2007 - Visionary Of The Year: JR East's Akio Shiibashi.
June 1, 2007... QUICK READ Akio Shiibashi built the world's biggest automated fare-collection system with Suica in Tokyo. And he planted the seed for what has grown into a base of nearly 30 million wallet phones carried by Japanese. He intends to use that...

THE SHIIBASHI FILE.(Akio Shiibashi, East Japan Railway)(Suica smart cards)(Brief article)(Biography)
June 1, 2007... NAME: Akio Shiibashi AGE: 54 POSITION: Director, Suica System Department, East Japan Railway. EDUCATION: Mechanical Engineering degree, Saitama University, 1976. PhD in engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2006. CAREER:...

Going Where Banks Have Yet To Tread.
June 1, 2007... NEW MARKETS WINNER Universal Remote Transaction System, FINO Tapping the vast potential market for microfinance using a smart card-based system. Microfinance has gotten a lot of attention these days, with the awarding of the 2006...

Building A Thinner Chip.
June 1, 2007... BEST INNOVATION WINNER MOB6 Contactless chip package, NXP Semiconductors Ultra-thin chip and package allow for greater flexibility for e-passports and other ID documents When it comes to electronic passports, durability and, of...

Mexico Taps Banks To Help Deliver Prescription Drugs.
June 1, 2007... BEST IMPLEMENTATION WINNER Tu Salud card, Seguro Popular Mexican government uses banking infrastructure to help get poor people their meds. Officials in Mexico faced a problem governments in most developing countries have to deal...

Advertising Index.
June 1, 2007... Advanced Card Systems Ltd. 21 Tel: + 852 2796 7873 Web site: www.acs.com.hk E-mail: infoacs.com.hk Arthur Blank & Co, Inc. 20 Tel: 617-325-9600 Web site: www.arthurblank.com E-mail: abcoabco.com Bayer...

Pumping Up The Volume.(SIM card shipments)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... SIM card shipments have soared in recent years, with unit volume up an average 48% per year since 2002. That's thanks largely to sales of commoditized cards to China, India and other developing markets. Growth may moderate this year, however....