The response to this year’s YIR was quite amazing with 33 companies/industry experts responding to our questionnaire. Here is what the industry leaders think about 2004 and what 2005 may hold for Biometrics.

Participants included: NEC, Texas Instruments, Higgins-Hermansen, Bio-key, Smith-Heimanns, OSS Nokalva, Motorola, LG Electronics, Daon, Accu-Time, IBM, Panasonic, Acuity, ImageWare, Bioscrypt, Cogent, DigitalPersona, AdelLock, BNX, Fujitsu, VoiceGenie, EzValidation, Identix, A4Vision, Cognitec, Asperon, International Biometric Group, SecuriMetrics, Labcal, NevenVision, RF Logics, Precise Biometrics and Viisage.

As we compiled the results, it became clear to us that industry experts feel that this has been a very positive year for the Biometric Industry with most companies reporting strong growth and increased traction on all fronts. Let’s take a look at a summary of our findings.

Question:
What are the most pressing issues facing the Biometric Industry as we move into 2005?

Answer:
Scalability and flexibility while maintaining interoperability, complying with emerging industry standards and meeting shifting market demands. Because biometrics play a critical role in helping solve today's identity challenges, vendors have to aggressively maximize efficiency and increase value by providing solutions that support numerous environments such as multiple systems, applications and devices.
Jim Miller, ImageWare

One of the most striking differences in this year’s response from last year’s are the number of companies that refer to actual, real world deployments of their products and services, with several referencing their involvement in high profile deployments around the globe. This was not the case last year when many companies were discouraged about the lack of real world deployment.

Also of note in 2004, were the many companies stating their new partnerships, acquisitions or mergers. Several also indicated a strong desire for continued growth and expansion by increasing their M&A activity in 2005.

Very noteworthy, were the numbers of businesses launching new products or services with many indicating again the need to stay ahead of the demand growth.

Many survey participants indicated their successful shift into vertical markets such as financial, HIPAA, PDA’s, cell phones and the whole wireless arena.

As well, an area that requires significant work is the education of the marketplace on Biometrics. It is felt that this will assist with privacy concerns and increase speed to market of new Biometric products.

The fact that Biometrics have shown up in two Prime Time TV productions this past year is yet another positive indication that Biometrics are steadily moving into mainstream user consciousness. Watching an 8-year old young girl, on ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover, easily operate a fingerprint door lock to open her new room was a great moment for the Biometrics Industry.

As Biometrics become increasingly utilized in TV and film productions as real world, real time examples of working technology, instead of some futuristic “James Bond” scenario, the general public will rapidly grow to accept and desire them just as they did with laptop computers and cell phones when they were first introduced using the film and broadcast channels.

The staff at findBIOMETRICS would like to thank all the industry experts for their participation in our 2004 Year In Review.

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