For years, the physical security industry has predicted the “tipping point” in the video surveillance market as the point in time when Internet protocol (IP) video will outsell analog video. But are you paying attention to the other tipping point? Yes, access control has a tipping point of its own — the point when smart cards will outsell legacy cards.
ABI Research, New York, estimates that about 1.5 billion smart credentials will be issued through 2014. ABI Research analyst Phil Sealy predicts, “We expect smart card-based government and healthcare ID products to catch up with and surpass shipment volumes of legacy credentials by 2013.”