On the road to Bandol

e-Smart, day 2. This panel discussion was very promising, especially because of its host, Bertrand Ducastel, who recently left the smart card industry to return to Schlumberger’s petroleum services.

The panelists were:

• DBo: Dominique Bolignano, CEO, Trusted Logic
• JF: Jerry Fishenden, Nat’l Technology Officer, Microsoft UK
• CG: Christian Goire, Gemalto, and President, Java Card Forum
• DBa: Dan Balaban, Card Technology Magazine
• JPT: Jean-Paul Thomasson, Head of SC Cooperative R&D Projects, ST Microelectronics

The panel was organized around a few questions, to which every panelist was invited to answer, and then the public was asked to vote. I have here provided a shortened version of the panelists’s answers, and well as my own analysis (I had much more time than the panelists to think about my answers).

Q1: Which is the most important: Google or Microsoft?

• DBo: Microsoft, for their past achievements around cards, but Google is important for the future
• JF: Microsoft, because Google is too young
• CG: Microsoft for technology, Google for business
• DBa: Google, because they will realize that security is important
• JPT: MS, because they consider the technology is important.
• Public: About evenly split
• EV: I voted for Google, because of their global influence of the industry, and because all examples on the “Web applications” talk were Google examples.

Q2: Will there be smart cards in handsets in 5 years?

• JPT: Yes, because 5 years is too short for a technology change
• DBa: Yes, because SIM is cheap
• CG: Yes, for their low price and easy personalization
• JF: Yes, because form factor is ideal
• DBo: Yes, but there will be security on both the card and the handset
• Public: Yes
• EV: I believe that theere will be a smart card, but I am not sure that this card will do anything more than basic authentication; the high-value services may be elsewhere. In addition, alternative communication models, like Wi-FI phones, ad-hoc networks, could change the big picture.

Q3: Which will win: Gemalto or SanDisk?

• JF: Gemalto, although there will be more mergers, and these 2 could end up together.
• CG: Gemalto, Sandisk is not ready to do what Gemalto is doing, because this market is about more than OS, also personalization
• DBa: We don’t know where Gemalto is going, but Sandisk is new on security. So, Gemalto.
• JPT: Gemalto, knowing how to implement security
• DBo: Gemalto, for the SIM market, because of the relationship with operators, but Sandisk could win on other grounds
• Public: Gemalto
• EV: Gemalto may keep the SIM, but Sandisk may win if alternative communication models succeed,

Q4: Which will secure PCs: TPM or smart card?

• DBa: TPM, because MS supports it, and because readers simply didn’t work.
• CG: Depends on the asset. For a PC as asset, the answer is smart card.
• JF: TPM, because it secures the PC, but the smart card will help
• DBo: TPM, because it secures the PC, and the card takes care of the user.
• JPT: TPM, because the deployment is so powerful.
• Public: TPM
• EV: TPM, the smart card can deal with the user and/or the outside connections.

Q5: Which will be the most numerous in 5 years, RFID or cards?

• CG: You have to move from one tech to another, which is hard, so smart card
• JF: RFID, because of sheer numbers.
• DBo: RFID, although I woud have preferred cards because RFID has not software
• JPT: RFID, because it benefits consumers and is very high-volume
• DBa: RFID, because privacy issues related to them will fade.
• Public: RFID
• EV: RFID, for all the reasons above. But if we look at the work on ambient intelligence, how long will is take for at least some of the RFID’s to be as smart as today’s smart cards? In that case, the split may not be that obvious.

Q6: Can a smart card become a PC?

• DBo: No, the functionality will increase, but not enough to replace a PC
• JF: No, too far away
• CG: No, same reason
• DBa: We have heard about a smart card being a PC in a pocket, which will have a Sony battery that catches fire, so better no.
• JPT: From a technology standpoint, yes. From a business point of view, no, so no.
• Public: no
• EV:No, but the smart card market may look a lot like the PC market. We will see more “integrators” at the card level, putting a chip, an OS, a platfom, and a few apps together, without necessarily having any technical expertise.

Finally, each panelist was asked for a conclusion:

• JPT: Who will decide? The consumers, and the actors will fight, and the winners will be the ones offering the right profuct at the right price for the customer.
• DBa: Gemalto will win for SIM, but network cards will also be important if they manage to get rid of the reader.
• CG: There is a question about the complete value chain. 2007 will be interesting, ant the same debate may have different answers next year.
• JF: The PC industry is very secure, but in the macro level, things have been poorly designed. We need to think of our customer’s security and privacy, and this is a tremendous challenge.
• DBo: We thought we knew the industry, now we doubt. We are at a time of great uncertainty, and all players need to have good strategy and innovation.

The final words were Bertrand’s:

I love this industry, and after 10 years, I know that it is in good hands, and I wish you the best.

Farewell, Bertrand, and see you soon.