Credit Card Industry: Smart Cards

For the past decade, Europe has been the world’s number one maker of smart cards, the

pocket plastic with an embedded chip that stores reams of financial and other

information. In the meantime, American markets are trying to switch over to chip based

cards but the consumers and merchants are not as enthusiastic. In this analysis, I will

compare two different articles that have separate views about smart cards coming to the

United States.

In August 2000, Business Week published an article about the future of smart cards

coming to the U.S. The article contained nothing but positive aspects of the new

technology and its perks for consumers. It seemed the article was written simply to boost

the idea of the smart card to holders of the cards. The article did not mention the

business owners views or card issuers views. The article was also very statistical in the

prospects of the smart card in the years to come. For example, the article s...