October 24, 2005
E-Smart's Supersoaker?
Today e-Smart Technologies (ticker = ESMT) announced that their CEO is again speaker at some sort of conference.
What does this company do that it's constantly invited to speak everywhere?
e-Smart develops and markets the Super Smart Card(TM). It's a smartcard with an onboard fingerprintsensor and verification system. It seems to be compatible with most smartcard readers (according to the companies website).
Is this a real opportunity or do you have to waste your money on something else?
First of all the concept of a smartcard with a build-in fingerprintsensor is not new. Siemens introduced such a technology in 1999. The card however was not compatible with ordinary smartcard readers but it won a few prizes.
So the first issue for e-Smart is that their claimed exclusivity might turn out to be not so exclusive since there is genuine competition with patents and marketingpower etc.
The second and more important issue is "where is the business case"? If you look closely at their website it's only technology driven with a poor marketing sauce. You will find no real business favors, comparisons with other technologies or a clear ROI.
Only the issuance of such cards would imply a far more complex process as to the normal issuance of smartcards because you would need to have a complete controlled issuance and enrollment process. If you only consider this and set the technology aside, you must agree that this technology is nice but not realistic.
