Global SIM card shipment will reach 5.2 billion units in 2014, marking a revitalizing 5.32% increase compared to 2013, according to a forecast by ABI Research. The leading market research firm noted that LTE, NFC, and M2M have successfully paved their way into the industry and are considered the trends for the next few years.
ABI Research said that India which saw a massive decline in shipments during 2013 due to regulation for compulsary ID registration, has successfully stabilized and recorded a steady growth in 2014. China and Saudi Arabia are the other two large markets that are experiencing a similar trend.
ABI Research also added that two smaller E.U. vendors (Bluefish and ST Incard) have increased their shares significantly in 2014, while the combined market shares of European SIM providers including the big four vendors (Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, Morpho, and G&D) dominated the global market share with 75% in the first half of 2014. On the other hand, Asian vendors (Eastcompeace, Watchdata, Datang, Wuhan Tianyu, and Kona) have lost their market share by 7% from 2012, holding only 18% of market share in the first half of 2014.
Research Analyst Dimitrios Pavlakis
Exploring global data we found that in 2014 we witnessed the crucial moment when technology curved at a higher percentage towards LTE. For the United States, Japan, and South Korea this transition was achieved quite smoothly while Africa and India are experiencing difficulties in their attempt to invest and upgrade their current network infrastructure. The board is set and LTE, NFC, and M2M are the rapidly increasing trends of the market. Global analysis in 2014 suggests 83% increase in LTE technology, 153% increase in SWP Secure Element SIM shipments, and 63% increase in MFF shipments since 2013.
