According to BITKOM, the German biometrics market will more than double in size over the next years to come. Turnover will probably grow from 120 million Euros in 2006 to about 300 million Euros in the year 2010.
The recognition of digital imprints will remain the most important technology in this market. Also growing in importance is face recognition the market share of which is set to increase from currently 20% to approximately 30%. These are the findings of a study carried out by Roland Berger on behalf of BITKOM.
While passports and passwords may be forgotten, stolen or counterfeit, digital imprints, the iris, voice or face are inseparably linked to an individual. This fact makes biometrics so special. Currently about 100 German companies employing several thousand people produce biometrical products or deal with their system integration. Most of these companies are located in Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, followed by Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin.
»The German biometrics industry is internationally renowned and is the world leader in terms of face recognition«, said Prof. Dieter Kempf, member of the BITKOM board, on the presentation of the study findings. Given that this industry is mostly made up of small and medium-sized entities, it quite often lacks the money for research and development and international commercialization.
The market for biometrical technologies is strongly affected by political decisions: Soreon Research estimate that the government will account for 45% of the total German demand by the year 2009. The importance of public demand also explains why biometrics are most important economically in the USA: there the percentage of the turnover of the biometrics industry in proportion to GDP amounts to 0.005% which is three times as much as in Europe. According to the International Biometric Group, global turnover of the biometrics industry is to increase from 1.8 billion Euros in 2006 to 4.8 million Euros in the year 2010. 