In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, global biometric device revenues are expected to drop 22%, ($1.8 billion) to $6.6 billion, according to a recent report from global tech market advisory, ABI Research. The entire biometrics market, however, will regain momentum in 2021 and is expected to reach approximately $40 billion in total revenues by 2025.

“The current decline in the biometrics market landscape stems from multifaceted challenges from a governmental, commercial, and technological nature,” said Dimitrios Pavlakis, Digital Security Industry analyst.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Biometric Technologies and Applications market data report. This report is part of the company’s Digital Security research service.

ABI Research forecasts ‘strong growth’ in drone industry post-COVID-19

Study says smart home market loses $14B to COVID-19

Pavlakis explained that governments experienced budgetary constraints that led to the delay of many fingerprint-based applications. Commercial on-premise applications and access control suffered as the rise of the remote workers became the new norm for the first half of 2020.

Hygiene

He also noted that hygiene concerns due to contact-based fingerprint technologies pummelled biometrics revenues forcing a sudden drop in fingerprint shipments worldwide.

ABI Research said that “not all is bleak, though.” New use-case scenarios have emerged, and certain technological trends have risen to the top of the implementation lists. For example, enterprise mobility and logical access control using biometrics as part of multi-factor authentication (MFA) for remote workers.

“Current MFA applications for remote workers might well translate into permanent information technology security authentication measures in the long term,” says Pavlakis. This will improve biometrics-as-a-service (BaaS) monetization and authentication models down the line.”

Biometrics applications can now look toward new implementation horizons.

“Future smart city infrastructure investments will now factor in additional surveillance, real-time behavioral analytics, and face recognition for epidemiological research, monitoring, and emergency response endeavors,” Pavlakis said.