Predicting that biometric smart cards will become its area of highest growth, Sweden’s Fingerprint Cards (FPC) believes the unique authentication method will be widespread by 2018. With the ability to replace credit cards, ID badges, or even car keys, the smart fingerprint cards are simpler and safer than passcodes and are becoming increasingly popular for different uses. Alaska Airlines even predicts that biometrics will ameliorate the air travel experience, hoping that fingerprints will replace many of the steps in the process while enhancing security.

Some leaders in biometric technology are hesitant to espouse the smart card idea completely so soon, and one company predicts their spread happening in the next five to ten years. Because there is no way to predict smart card market share, companies are cautious to give an estimate about when the biometric cards will be the norm, however, we should expect to let our fingerprints do the work in the foreseeable future.