Date: 19/09/2012

ABI Research places NXP, Ingenico and Gemalto at top 3 in id sys biz

ABI Research has performed competitive evaluation to rate the leading payment card ICs (secure ICs), smart cards and POS/mobile card reader vendors. By considering 11 different criteria under implementation, innovation and market share, a total of 18 companies were assessed.

NXP, Gemalto, and Ingenico are the three highest ranked vendors.

The findings and analysis reported by ABI includes:
Collectively the three vendors attained well above average scores within the implementation category measuring global presence, breadth of services, partnership strengths, influence, and standards (EMV and PCI) compliance. NXP, Ingenico, and Gemalto are all established international manufacturers with a growing global client list and a market share placing them 1st or 2nd in their product category.

According to ABI Research, the innovation scores were driven by the following individual factors:

Gemalto’s contactless readiness and NFC developments proved a winning point within the innovation category. Not only is it active in contactless and NFC, it has participated in over 45 NFC trials to date and has a range of contactless payment cards already deploying within Brazil, Poland, and the UK.

For NXP, its dominance within the transportation and ticketing, and access control markets give it the edge over its competitors when it comes to market convergence. The ability to leverage an existing large-scale client base for additional NFC emulation gives NXP added value and the potential to be a major beneficiary of NFC driven market convergence.

Ingenico’s high innovation score was primarily driven by a broad contactless availability, a robust mobile POS solution targeted at higher-end clients, along with established strategic partnerships with all the major payment networks including PayPal, a potential payment network disrupter.

According to author of the Competitive Assessment, Phil Sealy, “Vendor competition within the payments market continues to heat up. As the market reaches higher levels of EMV penetration, the importance will shift to innovation. Contactless and NFC will become increasingly important and the next natural step in EMV progression from initial migration.” Sealy continued, “Having a proven contactless product line with innovative convergent solutions at the forefront of new developments will be key to future success within the payments market.”