UPDATE: Italian IDs to retain LaserCard's optical stripe
An analyst who warned that the Italian government might drop the technology changes his mind; switch would have carried a high cost but would have ensured compatibility with other European national ID systems; announcement good news for LaserCard, but the technology’s future remains in doubt
Careful readers will recall our November report in which we suggested that the Italian government might drop the optical memory stripe from its national ID card (Carta d’Identita Elettronica, or CIE) due to high cost and a lack of compatibility with the smart card standards likely to become the basis for a Europe-wide identification card. Although a government commission was set to work on the issue, and no decision had yet been made, this was seen as terrible news for Mountain View, California-based LaserCard, which manufactures said stripes.
We based this report on the work of analyst Jeremy Grant of the Stanford Group, but we can now inform our readers that Grant has changed his opinion. “We believe the work of this commission is now reaching a conclusion and that the CIE project will proceed,” Grant wrote in a recent follow-up report, noting that the optical stripe would remain. As a result, Grant projects that LaserCard will ultimately earn $40 million to $50 million a year on the Italian ID cards, making it “by far the most important project for LaserCard.”
The company is also using the same technology for the Saudi Arabian national ID program, but nevertheless Grant believes optical stripes are a losing technology in the long term. “While its potential market will grow,” Grant writes, “U.S. and international standards that favor microprocessor (smart) cards present an uphill battle to LaserCard’s technology.” But for the short term, at least, the Italians remain onboard.
-read more in this CardTechnology report
