December 13, 2001
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: Sicovam 5768) and (NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's number one provider of solutions empowered by smart cards, today announced it has delivered 10 million of its Java Card(TM) technology-based GemXpresso smart cards to the financial services market, clearly demonstrating its market leadership in the development and deployment of the Java Card platform.
The proliferation of Java Card technology has accelerated significantly in the last 18 months, most notably in the U.S. financial services market, with enormous potential for future growth. Worldwide, significant expansion is also expected in Asia.
"Java Card technology has gained increasing momentum in the past few years across multiple industries in wireless telecommunications, government and military identification and most recently in the financial services arena. The financial services industry represents an enormous expansion opportunity for Java Card technology as the future for growth resides in the multi-application capability of the Java Card platform," said Shalini Chowdhary, senior industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "Markedly, with its recent rollout of smart Visa among other implementations of Java Card technology around the world, Gemplus has proved considerable leadership in this market."
Visa U.S.A. has played a pivotal role in promoting Java Card technology in the financial services sector by adopting the Open Platform standard as the backbone upon which its successful smart Visa program is built. Gemplus, with an overwhelming majority of the share of Java Card technology-based cards deployed in this program, has worked closely with the payment association as a global partner and in providing key components to the smart Visa Technology Platform.
Java Card technology provides a platform for the rapid development and deployment of smart card applications while meeting the security requirements of issuers, including wireless operators, government agencies, financial service providers and others. The technology's open architecture speeds time to market and encourages interoperability among cards and devices.
Java Card technology is also a key facilitator in the convergence of offline, online, and mobile services. The flexibility of the technology combined with the smart card's multi-channel interface creates a powerful vehicle for the next generation of services to be available to consumers anytime, anywhere, via any device.
"As the market continues to mature, card issuers will reap the benefits of the ability to dynamically add and change applications on Java Card technology-based smart cards already in the field," said Luc Astier, GemXpresso product line manager with Gemplus. "For the issuers, one card can be the solution to meeting consumers' extensive payment and service needs throughout their life stages." The success of these smart credit cards has resulted in the existence of a large deployed base of Java Card technology that can be leveraged by the issuers and their partners to deploy additional consumer-driven applications such as coalition marketing, online/offline loyalty, and ticketing.
Gemplus' commitment to open platform solutions has resulted in a full range of multi-application cards, from low cost products for banking and retail, to powerful, high-memory cards that support Public Key Infrastructure. The company also continues to invest heavily in Java Card technology research and development, and participate in cross-industry organizations to support and develop the Java Card platform, such as the Java Card Forum, Liberty Alliance Project, Global Platform, and Open Card Consortium.
It should be noted that certain of the statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27a of the securities act of 1933 and section 21e of the securities exchange act of 1934. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors including without limitation customer demand for our products, supply of key components, developments in the market and advances in technology that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, or performance to materially differ from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more detailed description of these factors, please see Gemplus' most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this release. We are under no duty to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements after this date or to confirm such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.
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