--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com X-Sender: believer@telepath.com Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 11:31:51 -0600 To: believer@telepath.com From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: Microsoft Enters Smart Card Market Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: believer@telepath.com Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/28card.html October 28, 1998 Microsoft Enters Smart Card Market By BLOOMBERG NEWS PARIS -- The Microsoft Corporation introduced a tiny computer-operating system for smart cards Tuesday as well as support for the system from 20 hardware makers. Smart cards contain microchips that store personal or financial data, allowing access while securing the information from unauthorized use. They are already used widely in Europe in digital mobile phones, pre-paid telephone cards and bank cards. Microsoft is betting that smart cards will take off as the growing use of hand-held computer devices and electronic commerce creates demand for more secure ways of accessing computer networks. The company, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is competing against Sun Microsystems Inc. in the smart-card market, pitting its Windows system against Sun's Java programming language. "We brought back our work on smart cards a year-and-a-half ago when we saw increasing demand for authentication of a user's identity to access a network and an explosion in demand for on-line electronic commerce," said Craig Mundie, senior vice president for consumer platforms at Microsoft. He presented the new product at the Cartes 98 Smart Card conference in Paris. He said test versions of the product would be ready in the first quarter of next year and the final product by mid-year. The Windows operating system for smart cards will have memory capacity of 4.5 kilobytes, compared with 300 kilobytes for Windows CE, which is used in hand-held computers. Windows cards will cost issuers about $3 each, compared with $20 for Java-based cards. Sun officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The worldwide market for chip cards will jump nearly fivefold, to $6.8 billion, in 2002, from $1.4 billion in 1997, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'