Why do credit card readers cost so much?

Just a premise first:

EMV (chip card standard) devices are NOT "readers" but they are "readers/writers?power suppliers to the card's chip.

So, from now on, we should call those readers "reader/writers".

Additionally to all that Sainath Gupta just explained there is a major point to be made here: lack of economy of scale! When the technology to manage a SIM card in a cellphone is adopted BILLIONS of times, the technology for an EMV card is only replicated MILLIONS of times. That makes costs intrinsically higher.

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