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

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