Annualised 2008 Sales figures Highlight Central Role of SIM

SIMposium2009, 21st April 2009: SIMalliance, the global association of SIM card manufacturers, today announces the annualised sales figures for the SIM industry for Y2008. The results, despite the global economic downturn, are encouraging. Global SIM card shipments* have exceeded 2.9 billion units, with strong demand from the emerging markets of India, China, Asia Pacific and Latin America contributing to a 29 per cent increase on shipments over the previous year.

Critically for service providers and handset manufacturers looking to add functionality and extend service offerings, the power of the SIM grew in 2008.

On average, memory size increased by 11 per cent on 2007 figures, while the number of cards shipped with a S@T** browser had a growth rate of 22 per cent. Indeed, 3G enabled SIM cards represented 14 per cent of total shipments in 2008.

Added to this, SIMalliance has been working with the mobile value chain throughout 2008 to maximise current investments in SIM card technologies. Meanwhile, its working groups including S@T, MarkUp Language, Interoperability, Mobile NFC, Smart Card Web Server and OTA & Handset Asia have helped facilitate a unified approach and speeded the development and adoption of advanced SIM technology for next generation mobile environments, architectures and services.

These developments, and the annualised figures, are being showcased today at SIMposium in Vienna, 21st – 22nd April 2009, where an audience of over 200 service providers, handset manufacturers, application developers and other ecosystem players have gathered to discuss the future of the mobile industry and the central role of the SIM.  Uniquely, for a conference of this kind, SIMposiumLive 2009 features an online interactive seminar programme and exhibition hall. For more details www.simalliance.org/simposium

Key announcements at SIMposium 2009:
• The launch of version 4.0 of SIMalliance’s interoperable S@T specifications, the world’s fastest growing SIM browsing solution for the delivery of value add, mass market mobile services.  The new specification addresses the latest service challenges and includes modifications to streamline and simplify the S@T solution to meet new customer requirements.
• The availability of the latest version of the SIMalliance’s Loader Tool. The Release 6 will enable the delivery of a new class of services on the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC).
• Supporting the development of next generation services, the announcement of the latest version of Java Card Stepping Stones Release 7, a practical guide for the development of Java applications guaranteed to be interoperable with the Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM).
• The availability of their Smart Card Web Server demo kit V2 showcasing multimedia applications running on a SIM card.

For more details: www.simalliance.org

“Despite the global economic climate, Vienna plays host to a 200+ participant SIMposium conference,” said Michel Canitrot, Chairman of the Board at SIMalliance. “This interest has much to do with the position of the SIM as a platform for service innovation in today’s circuit switch world. While there are undoubtedly huge opportunities for the SIM, handset and service provider communities to work together to increase innovation in a new generation world, from a commercial perspective 2009 must be a year where pragmatism rules optimism, and maximising existing investment is key. Of course, we will continue to attract global brands and exciting new businesses into our working groups to ensure that when the market rebounds, the SIM is once again the strongest platform for service delivery and revenue growth.”