In October the UK government said smartphone applications could possibly be used to confirm your identity when using government websites. It's an idea that's not just restricted to the UK; a recent report from Goode Intelligence says the market for mobile phone-based authentication products and services is set to grow from $153 million (£94 million) next year to almost $760 million in revenue and approaching 114 million users worldwide by 2014.
The company also says the two current dominant authentication vendors will lose market share in the next 18 months to the new mobile phone authentication specialist vendors – but the growth of mobile phone-based authentication will also cause the overall market to expand. [Press release (pdf)]