Compared with the current inventory pressure of chips such as storage and SoCh, the shortage of chips such as automotive grade MCUs for the automotive market has lasted for quite a long time.
Similarly, the "chip shortage dilemma" in the automotive industry has also spread to the SIM card market in the communications field. Recently, the institution ABI Research proposed, "Due to the continued tightness of the chip supply chain, the global SIM card shipment this year will be at the level of 4.3 billion, a year-on-year decline of 8.5%.
As an indispensable "old player" SIM card to provide communication services, the physical SIM card is the "bridge" connecting the mobile phone and the operator network. In order to allow the mobile phone to successfully read its "identity" and store relevant information, the SIM card is actually an chip card with a microprocessor installed inside.
SIM card adopts a new microcontroller and memory management structure, and is assembled by 5 modules on an integrated circuit, namely CPU, ROM program memory, RAM working memory, EPROM data memory and serial communication unit. Therefore, the production and production of SIM cards cannot be separated from the design and assembly of chips.
According to the report, the decline in SIM card shipments is mainly caused by the continued tightness of the chip supply chain, and this decline may continue until 2023.
At the same time, starting last year, the "chip shortage" in the automotive industry has not shown signs of ease. The "down-line" of a car requires the "blessing" of more than 1,000 chips. The normal operation of each function of the car requires different types of chips and control units to compute and combine them in order to build the overall ecosystem of a car.
As a "big core user", data shows that the global shipment of automotive chips in 2021 reached 52.4 billion, and increased by 30% year-on-year, even higher than 22% of the total chip shipment.
Facts have proved that the "chip shortage" in the automotive industry is not a production capacity problem of chip suppliers, but a relatively long business cycle for automotive chips due to the surge in demand, which has caused a situation of supply and demand in the market.
However, in sharp contrast with the "chip shortage problem" in the automotive field, with the weakening of market demand for smartphones and PC devices, the "chip shortage" on the storage side has eased in recent times. The "pressure" from chips has turned to chip manufacturers. Oversupply and price declines have become the current survival status of memory chip . The overall inventory backlog of chips has also made it difficult for chip companies to adjust in a short period of time.
Whether it is a physical SIM card or the eSIM function that has been applied on the US version of iPhone 14 series, it is inseparable from that "small" chip. The security of the
entity SIM card is higher than that of the eSIM directly integrated on the internal processor of the mobile phone, because the eSIM of the "On-Air Writing Card" relies on remote management operations to complete the service requests issued by the user.
During this period, data exposed to "air" transmission is likely to encounter attacks, causing user data leakage; but due to its convenience and greater room for use, eSIM has successfully removed the SIM card slot and launched a new eSIM function, leaving more physical space for subsequent technical innovation from hardware.
The SIM card field that operators have begun to study in the past two years has ushered in a new breakthrough in super SIM cards launched by China Mobile, and won the second prize of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "2022 Emergency Communication High-end Equipment Collection Activities".
Super SIM card has also launched a campus version. Based on the super SIM card security chip and NFC near field interaction, the super SIM campus card can not only enable calls and access the Internet, but also be used for canteen consumption, and can also act as an access control card and transportation card. The Super SIM card realizes a collection of essential functions in daily life with a "small" chip.
Global telecom SIM card shipments in 2021 reached 4.9 billion, accounting for 51.83% of the total global smart card shipments.
. Due to the influence of the chip supply chain and the impact of Apple's new eSIM function, physical SIM card shipments will decline this year. However, for the domestic market, eSIM is more used in the Internet of Things fields such as smart watch . According to the current progress, the domestic physical SIM card market will not be affected by substantial impact and will go on a "downhill" road. However, chips and eSIM functions are still "important partners" that cannot be ignored on the future path of SIM cards.
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