Frost & Sullivan says North American smart card microcontroller shipments will top 132 million units in 2005 and grow at a 27.7% compound annual rate through 2010.

In Latin America growth will be even greater, with a 59.1% compound annual growth rate for shipments during the same period. Shipments in the region were 136.4 million microcontroller smart cards in 2005.

The research shows that the move towards contactless payments will drive smart card growth in the US, while migration to EMV will be a major factor in Canada.

Frost & Sullivan says the SIM mobile telecommunications market was the largest US market segment in 2004, followed by pay TV, payment/loyalty, government/ID and access control, but the SIM card share of total market to drop dramatically over the next five years as other applications become more widely deployed. The fastest growing sectors will then be payment and government/ID.

In Latin America the GSM mobile telecommunications market was the largest smart card market in 2004, while payment/loyalty accounted for virtually all of the rest of the market.

According to Frost & Sullivan, these two market will continue to lead shipments in the region, although over the next five years, growth in SIM card shipments will be the main driver.

In payment/loyalty, the migration of the financial industry to EMV in Brazil and Mexico will also fuel growth at a steady rate in the short and medium term. Additional countries have also begun pilot projects for chip-based banking and payment cards and are expected to contribute to growth.