Shipments of Removable SIM Cards to Decline 10% This Year: ABI

Market forces are expected to “significantly constrain” the SIM card market in 2022, reducing global shipments of removable SIM cards nearly 10% to 3.93 billion from 4.36 billion in 2021, reported ABI Research Thursday. The “long-term threats” to the removable SIM card form factor “are presenting themselves within the handset market, which is already extremely saturated, limiting growth opportunities,” it said. Smartphone average selling prices are “significantly higher” than a few years ago, “negatively affecting removable SIM card churn rates as device contracts are lengthened to spread the cost of higher priced smartphones over a longer period of time.”