Infineon Ranked as Number One Chip Card Semiconductor Vendor for the Twelfth Year in a Row
Frost & Sullivan Affirms Infineon's Global Leadership in its Annual Market Report
-- In its recent market report entitled “World Smart Card IC Markets,” the US market research company Frost & Sullivan confirmed that Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) was the number one supplier of chip card semiconductors, with sales representing about one fourth of the segment’s global revenue. In 2008, Infineon’s market share was 25.5 percent of the overall chip card IC (integrated circuit) market, totaling about US $2.4 billion according to Frost & Sullivan. This is the twelfth consecutive year Frost & Sullivan researchers have named Infineon as the top supplier to this market.
”The fact that Infineon remained number one in the chip card semiconductor revenues for at least a dozen years proves the company’s understanding of its customers’ rigorous requirements for security and quality and reflects customer trust in Infineon’s security expertise,” said Rufus Connell, Vice President, Smartcards & Retail Systems at Frost & Sullivan market research company. “The key elements that have contributed to Infineon’s success in the smart card IC market have been its high level of commitment to security innovation and its unique technology strategy.”
Infineon’s strong market position is particularly driven by its leadership in the Government Identification (ID) and Payment market segments.
In Government ID applications, roughly every second Government ID document (without the China ID project) issued in 2008 incorporated a security chip of Infineon. Government ID applications include electronic documents, such as passports, national ID, health cards, drivers licenses and social security cards. Today, Infineon’s products are used in the public domain of about one third of the 192 UN member states, which represent a total population of more than three billion people. A key success factor in this sensitive market is the ability to provide long-term security and robust, high-quality products with excellent contactless performance.
As key partner of the secure chip card industry, Infineon also demonstrated its undisputed leadership in the Payment market. The company is the major supplier for many of the world’s largest financial card applications, including credit and debit card programs in France, Germany, the UK and Korea.
“In the forefront of hardware-based security developments Infineon seeks to offer superior security products that help our customers to create new business, also beyond the smart card form factor,” said Dr. Helmut Gassel, President of the Chip Card & Security Division at Infineon Technologies. “Building on almost 25 years of experience in the field of chip card semiconductors, Infineon will continue innovation focusing on tailored security offering the right level of security at best cost-performance ratio, on contactless excellence, and on embedded control.”
Together with energy efficiency and communication, security is one of the three focus areas of Infineon. The company is contributing its quarter-century of security expertise, gained in the development and production of chip card ICs and security ICs, to the effort to increase the security of today's solutions in payment and banking, communications, reliable identification of persons and goods, access protection for data and networks, and digital home entertainment electronics. Infineon offers a complete portfolio of scalable IC products with contact-based and contactless interfaces provided in various packages.
To learn more about Frost & Sullivan and its 2008 chip card and chip card semiconductor market share report, please visit www.frost.com
For more information on Infineon’s semiconductor product portfolio for chip card and security applications, please go to www.infineon.com/security
Notes to Editor
Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, communications, and security. In the 2008 fiscal year (ending September), the company reported sales of Euro 4.3 billion with approximately 29,100 employees worldwide. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the U.S. from Milpitas, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY).
Further information is available at www.infineon.com.