With IBM's MultiFunction Card Operating System, card issuers may benefit from the possibility of cost sharing, while consumers can have the convenience of handling only one card.
In the future, smart cards could handle mutiple tasks for their owners, from providing access to company networks, enabling electronic commerce, storing health care information, providing ticketless airline travel and car rentals, and offering electronic identification for accessing government services such as benefit payments and drivers licenses. Smart cards of the future may even stop resembling "cards" as smart card technology is embedded into rings, watches, badges, and other forms -- factors that will make them remarkably convenient to use.