Competition in Dual SIM Card

The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) tray for the dual SIM model of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (an image from the global homepage for the Galaxy of Samsung Electronics)
The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) tray for the dual SIM model of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (an image from the global homepage for the Galaxy of Samsung Electronics)

 

All eyes are on whether or not Samsung and Apple, the two frontrunners in the world smartphone industry will have a dual Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) duel in 2018.

A dual SIM card phone is a handset with slots for two SIM cards and popular in China, India and Europe among others. This kind of phone allows you to use a phone for both business and personal use and when using roaming services, local and overseas phone services. On top of that, you can use one mobile carrier for voice services and another for data services for more economical service plans. 

According to the ICT industry on December 31, 2017, Samsung Electronics is expected to launch dual SIM card models of the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy Note 9 in the spring of next year.

Samsung has been steadily releasing dual SIM card versions of major models from the feature phone era to the recent Galaxy Note 8 model. But the company did not officially release such models in Korea, the United States, Japan and other countries and release these models in Europe, Russia, Australia, South America and some countries in Asia only.

Apple is also expected to release a dual SIM card iPhone for the first time this year. Guiming Mingchi Kuo, an analyst at KGI Securities in Taiwan well known for accurately predicting a new iPhone roadmap, believes that at least one of the iPhone models to be announced in the second half of next year will be a dual SIM card model.

In a report which Kuo sent to customers late last month, he explained that both SIM cards of the next iPhones will support connections, he said.

Dual SIM card smartphones to be launched by Samsung Electronics and Apple next year will be characterized by the fact that they will be dual SIM card dual VoLTE phones which can use both dual SIM cards for LTE services. This is because Qualcomm, Mediatek and Spreadtrum will release chips that support these functions one after another. Dual SIM card phones that have come out so far cannot use both SIM cards for LTE services. They had no alternative but to use one SIM card for LTE services and the other for 3G or 2G services.

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