eSIM: State of the consumer market and the road ahead

Momentum for eSIM is accelerating in the consumer market, opening up new opportunities for mobile ecosystem players and enabling new benefits for consumers. By 2025, 2.4 billion smartphone connections will use eSIM globally. As market adoption grows and eSIM becomes part of day-to-day business, having a clear roadmap and strategy will be crucial to capture and monetise the new opportunities presented by eSIM.

This report focuses on the eSIM consumer market, providing a unique and fact-based update on the state of the market and its future outlook. It looks at the latest developments and trends in terms of eSIM consumer devices (smartphones, smartwatches, tablets and laptops), eSIM service commercialisation (how many operators have launched eSIM service and in what countries) and new use cases (e.g. 5G FWA). It also examines and segments consumer awareness of eSIM.

Looking to the future, the report also considers what needs to be done by the eSIM ecosystem (including OEMs, MNOs, MVNOs, and vendors of eSIM solutions and platforms) to fully leverage the business potential of eSIM and scale market adoption in the coming years.

The GSMA appreciates the collaboration of Giesecke+Devrient and Valid as partners for this report.