IHS Sees Wearables as Possible Growth Driver for Mature SIM Card Market
Wearables are a growth opportunity for the flat SIM (subscriber identity module) card market, an IHS report said Wednesday. The number of SIM cards shipped globally is forecast to increase from 5.4 billion in 2015 to 5.6 billion in 2020,…
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IHS said, citing smartwatches, fitness bands, smart glasses and clothes as possible growth drivers for smart-card suppliers and mobile network operators. “The rising number of these devices in the market is an opportunity for operators and card suppliers to increase SIM penetration for both pluggable and embedded form factors,” IHS analyst Don Tait said. SIM-enabled wearables have the potential to increase mobile network operator (MNO) subscribers, leading to more addressable devices for SIM management and increased revenue streams, Tait said. Companion devices are expected to spur growth in the SIM card market from 2015 to 2020, IHS said. Embedded SIM cards (eSIMs) will begin to appear in smartphones in the next couple of years as part of dual-mode SIM designs that also include a removable SIM card for backward compatibility, Tait said. Including an eSIM and a removable SIM card in a smartphone is a way for companies to test the market, similar to the strategy OEMs adopted for the advent of mobile payments, Tait said.