NEW RESEARCH REPORT BY MERCATOR ADVISORY GROUP PREDICTS MARKET FOR BIOMETRICS SUPPLIERS TO APPROACH $7 BILLION BY 2010

Mercator Advisory Group research shows that the market for all forms of biometrics from fingerprint scanning to voice verification is growing and anticipates that the global revenues for biometrics will approach $7 billion by 2010. This report examines the role of biometrics in payments both as a single source of authentication or as an additional authentication factor.

"Biometric technology will continue to grow in adoption as an authentication technique," states Melanie Broad, Analyst in Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Service and author of this report. "Implementations of biometrics across the board have been slow but steady. However, biometrics will have an important role to play in the future as the technology continues to be used as a second form of authentication for online authentication, ATMs, and in devices such as PCs, laptops and cellular phones."

The report looks at the market opportunities for biometric authentication with regards to payments and reviews the various biometric scanning technologies available. Biometric adoption is forecasted out to 2010 with consideration given to different biometric technologies. The report also examines the different adoption paths of contactless terminals and biometric readers at the point of sale.

Both the market for single factor biometric authentication and multi-factor biometric authentication are examined with an eye to the challenges and opportunities the market segments will face. Among other hurdles, the problem of distribution is discussed on both the merchant and consumer side.

The report identifies current implementations and technologies including a look many of the stakeholders in the competitive landscape. These stakeholders include biometric vendors and terminal manufacturers embedding biometric features into their POS devices.