New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, SIM Card Market in Selected APAC Countries, reveals that the market is expected to grow from 660 million units in 2005 to more than 1 billion in 2010.
One of the major trends in the Asia Pacific SIM card market is the growing move toward adoption of high-end cards that promise greater memory density and better security. This is already being seen in countries such as Malaysia and South Korea, which are moving toward the adoption of SIM/USIM cards above 128 K.
Currently, 16K-64k cards account for the bulk of the Asia Pacific SIM market, but with the increasing popularity of high-end cards, 16K cards could get completely phased out in the next one to four years. 64K cards are likely to become more or less the size of SIM in some of the major Asia Pacific countries.
Although high-capacity SIMs are considered secure and in theory, cost effective, the lack of sufficient content and applications could make them an expensive proposition and deter mobile operators from upgrading to them.
“Positive growth in the mobile data market and the convergence of non-SIM smart card applications on SIM are likely to positively impact high-end SIM cards,” remarks Jafiz. “64K SIM cards and above are likely to receive a boost as awareness increases and advanced applications are incorporated in them.”
However, the market is currently witnessing fierce price competition, leading to falling SIM prices, particularly for low-end cards. This has resulted in significant revenue loss for many market participants and could eat into companies’ reserve funds for further R&D and innovation, as well as affect the quality and security of the cards. This is likely to pose a major challenge to SIM card manufacturers.
