Analyst: Fingerprint sensors, facial recognition, biometric surveillance to drive $30B industry by 2021

ABI Research forecasts the global biometrics market to reach more than $30 billion by 2021, marking an impressive 118% increase from 2015.

“Consumers are increasingly putting their trust behind biometric-based authentication and searching for security, convenience, and personalization in multiple layers,” says Dimitrios Pavlakis, research analyst at ABI Research. “Surveillance is also gearing up, and by 2021, we anticipate more than one in three surveillance cameras shipped to be IP-connected cameras. This will undoubtedly open up new pathways for facial biometrics and surveillance analytics.”

Consumer electronics, particularly smartphones, continue to boost the biometrics market, finds the analyst, with embedded fingerprint sensors anticipated to reach two billion shipments by 2021 at a 40% CAGR. Further, while North America and the Asia-Pacific region continue to dominate the majority of the biometrics market share, ABI Research market data suggests that Latin America and the Middle East can also expect a boon in terms of new biometric implementations. This will primarily occur in banking and personal finance, followed by the governmental and security sectors.

Rising tensions and pressing identification issues in both the Middle East and Europe will also cause a major increase in biometric technologies, speculates the analyst. This will, in turn, motivate the respective governments to push for new legislation and regulations for data management and exchange initiatives. “Companies will move more aggressively toward the adoption of these new biometric form factors and technologies,” adds Pavlakis. “Technologies include USB-connected devices; embedded sensors in consumer electronics and payment cards; 4-finger, iris, and facial recognition in smartphones; and vein recognition in ATMs.”

The researcher notes that payment giants like Mastercard are leading the way with multimodal technologies and a distinct emphasis on facial recognition. Meanwhile, industry leaders Gemalto, STMicroelectronics, FPC, and Precise Biometrics recently formed a partnership for the development of end-to-end biometric architecture. Additionally, Morpho (Safran) recently has partnered with Airtel to increase user mobility under the UIDAI project in India.

The new data comes from ABI Research’s Biometric Technologies and Applications Service, which includes research reports, market data, insights, and competitive assessments.