Schlumberger, one of the world's leading innovators in the smart card business, has introduced one that can run on Sun Microsystems Java programming language. Its Cyberflex card is Java-compatible, meaning it can be programmed.
Cards that can be programmed safely have the potential to do more things more efficiently.
Jean Claude Deturche, marketing director for Asia at Schlumberger, said: 'The idea of using Java in a smart card is to separate the application from the OS. Most cards today are mono-applicational and there is no separation of the OS and application. The idea of a Java card was to use a Java-compatible platform. With this, almost anybody can write for the card and you can change the applications whenever you wish. It is extremely flexible.' Despite the known advantages of smart cards, the market was still considerably fragmented, Mr Deturche said. 'The smart card market is quite segmented. Telecommunications companies and the bankers, because they want different things, make it very fragmented. Most of the cards we are selling are traditional cards.' He claimed this should change within a few years because many companies and users wanted cards that could do more than just one task. The Cyberflex card was being used or tested by some of the world's largest companies.