eSIM Market Shipments by Use Case
Source Research:
eSIM in the Consumer and M2M Markets
The global Embedded Subscriber Identity Module (eSIM) market can be split into two primary segments: consumer eSIM and Machine-to-Machine (MFF M2M) eSIM (e.g., enterprise IoT. According to ABI Research's latest eSIM market forecasts, the overall market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.9% between 2023 and 2028. Total annual shipments will reach 880.6 million in 2028, up from 439.5 million in 2023. Breaking the eSIM card market down further, consumer eSIM accounts for 67% of overall shipments throughout the forecast period, with MFF M2M taking the remaining 33%.
When looking at the eSIM market by device type and application, smartphones dominate, accounting for 60% of overall shipments in 2023, with that number dropping slightly to 56% by 2028. This equates to 2.2 billion eSIM cards shipping within the smartphone market alone between 2023 and 2028.
Other significant device types and applications include automotive (463.6.6 million shipments between 2023 and 2028), wearables (223 million shipments), asset tracking/track and trace (218.4 million shipments), and energy management (192.2 million shipments).
Within the eSIM smartphone market, Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe are the biggest recipients. These three regions will account for over 80% of overall eSIM card shipments worldwide for the smartphone space. In 2028, eSIM smartphone shipments in the Asia-Pacific region will reach 792.3 million; in North America, it will be 586.5; and in Europe, the total shipments will be 474.2 million.
In terms of vendor breakdown, Apple will ship the most eSIM-supported smartphones in these three major markets, although Samsung will gain significant penetration in Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, Samsung is the primary manufacturer of eSIM smartphones in the more developing nations in Latin America and Middle East & Africa.
