The cards with a chip is old news already in some countries. I think I received my first 'chipped' card about two or three years back if not mistaken.
I know that the US is only starting to switch now, not sure why it took them so long to switch to the chip based cards though.
Just had my own question answered in an article I just read on Business Insider - 'Why it took the US so long to adopt EMV'.
"We have always had really good, strong fraud systems in place in the United States," MasterCard product expert Carolyn Balfany tells Business Insider. "Other parts of the world were not so lucky. They had lesser robust security systems, so they had more immediate need for chip cards and the security that they brought."
The US has always had "real time transactions," meaning merchants immediately send off the credit card information to the issuer for verification.
In other parts of the world there was a lag between when the merchant would send the card information. After swiping your card, your information would be stored with the merchant throughout the day, and wouldn't be sent to your bank for approval until later that day, meaning fraudsters had more time to commit fraud.
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-it-took-the-us-so-long-to-adopt-emv-2015-9
