After many years of promotion of eSIM application design, Qualcomm announced during MWC 2023 that it has cooperated with France’s Dalis Group (Thales) to add an integrated SIM card design approved by the GSM Association (GSMA) to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which was previously discussed The long-standing iSIM design will further free up the space occupied by internal components of devices such as smart phones.
Qualcomm expects that iSIM-designed devices will grow to 300 million units in 2027, and will gradually reduce the proportion of traditional SIM cards and eSIM designs.
Compared with the current eSIM design, iSIM mainly integrates the digital SIM card into the processor. It also has the ability to rewrite different telecommunications service data, so that the device can use various telecommunications tariff plans according to needs, and emphasizes security and current eSIM. Similarly, it does not occupy the limited space inside the device, so that the design of the device can become more flexible, and it can even be used in smaller IoT devices.
And this time announced the cooperation with Dalis Group to integrate the iSIM design into the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, and even confirmed that the next Snapdragon processor will be able to integrate the iSIM design, which means that mobile devices using Snapdragon processors in the future can become Thinner and lighter, or use a larger battery capacity.
Since the usage mode is the same as eSIM, telecom operators can basically extend their business to the iSIM usage mode as long as they can provide eSIM usage services.
However, like the recently announced satellite communication function Snapdragon Satellite, although it can be used on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, it does not mean that this processor is currently used, and mobile phones already on the market can support such functions. It mainly depends on whether the actual application product supports it.
However, judging from Qualcomm’s announcements so far, it is expected that the mobile phones launched in the second half of this year will add satellite communication and iSIM functions.
On the other hand, it has also been rumored that Apple’s upcoming new iPhone will cancel the physical SIM card design (currently only the version sold in the US market is canceled), and may also introduce the iSIM design.