In 2010, the development status of each segment of the smart card market was different. Although it has achieved sustained and steady development, there have been several joys and several sorrows. In many fields, heavy mobile communication has achieved a steady growth.

As the largest field of smart card application in China, the mobile communication card market achieved a certain degree of growth in 2010. However, if we look at the purchase prices of mobile communication cards by the three major domestic mobile operators, people will find such a fact: the mobile communication card market has entered an era of low profit. No manufacturer will give up the market with an annual demand of nearly 1 billion sheets, but it is very difficult to make profits from this market.

However, in the new application field of mobile communication card - mobile payment card market, it presents a vibrant scene. Nowadays, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Fujian, Inner Mongolia, Chongqing and other regions are vigorously promoting mobile payment, which has brought unprecedented development opportunities to the mobile payment card market. At present, mobile payment is mainly realized through three solutions: NFC, RF-SIM and simpass. Although it has been reported that the senior management of China Mobile has stopped the RF-SIM scheme, some local mobile companies have not reduced the use of RF-SIM, a sharp weapon to destroy the city and pull out the stronghold in the mobile payment market. Shanghai Mobile once demonstrated its 2.45G mobile payment scheme at the Shanghai World Expo. By the end of October 2010, the market sales of dual interface mobile phone cards in simpass scheme had reached more than 1 million.

However, whether from the perspective of technology or market, I'm afraid it will be NFC scheme that can really win the last laugh, because this scheme enables all relevant parties to profit from mobile payment.

The China financial integrated circuit (IC) card specification issued by the Central People's Bank of China on May 19, 2010 once again defined the timetable of EMV migration in China. Since then, it has been reported that EMV migration has been officially launched. However, as one of the most important IC card manufacturers in China, Dongxin Heping Smart Card Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Dongxin Heping) tells people with facts that the official start of EMV migration is just a rumor. The company has not received IC card orders from banks, nor has it felt any signs of EMV migration. In fact, at present, the real cards issued in China can be called standard bank IC cards, mainly citizen cards issued in Ningbo, Changsha and other places, and the issuance of these citizen cards is very limited. Although the domestic EMV migration has not been officially launched, it does not affect the layout of relevant enterprises in this field. Datang Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. officially launched domestic bank IC card chip products in 2010; Dongxin Heping has built a bank IC card production line; Hengbao Co., Ltd. also began to actively enter the field of bank IC card. The layout of the above enterprises in bank IC card business tells people that the start of domestic EMV migration is not far away.

In 2010, all cities in China are issuing City all-in-one cards or citizen cards, and are developing towards the direction of one card with multiple uses. One card with multiple uses not only facilitates people's life, but also saves resources. It is an important direction of smart card development in the future.

Another important direction of smart card development is multi card in one read-write terminal, that is, a smart card read-write terminal can read and write smart cards of different systems. Multi card in one read-write terminal can be divided into single frequency multi protocol compatible read-write terminal and multi frequency multi protocol compatible read-write terminal. The former can read and write all contactless smart cards of the same frequency, and the latter can read and write contactless smart cards of multiple frequencies. In fact, multi frequency and multi protocol compatible read-write terminals have been applied on some buses in Shenzhen. On these buses, citizens can pay with ordinary 13.56M Shenzhen pass card or RF-SIM 2.45G mobile phone.

In 2010, China's smart card market made great achievements. In 2011, we saw a more dynamic and potential market.