Watchdata ranks as leading SIM supplier to China Unicom
26 January, 2006
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One of the new emerging smart card leaders coming out of China, Watchdata, is still not as well-known in much of the world as the “old guard” manufacturers from Western Europe … but that may be changing. The company, which recently established a presence in the U.S., announced that it is 100-million GSM customers.
Watchdata Emerges as China Unicom’s Biggest Supplier, With Shipments Over 15 Million
BEIJING, Jan. 19 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ – Watchdata System Co., Ltd. announces that according to the statistics provided by ‘China Mobile Telecom Smart Card Market 2003-2005,’ the Smart Card Society of China Information Industry Trade Association, Watchdata’s shipments to China Unicom reached 12.88 million pieces as of December 23rd 2005, including 16K SIM, 32K STK, 32K UIM, and 64K Java cards. This shipment amount contributes to 14.47% of China Unicom’s total SIM cards issued. The total delivery made by Watchdata led Watchdata to emerge as the biggest supplier for China Unicom in 2005.
As of 31st Dec 2005, Watchdata’s total shipment to China Unicom reached 15.09 million pieces, with a 15.28% market share in terms of sales revenue. The Smart Card Society predicts that the telecom smartcard market will still be expanding as 3G products are heading towards commercialization and the slight changes in the telecom industrial demands would lead to higher requirements from the smartcard industry. As the biggest supplier and long-term established partner of China Unicom, Watchdata’s technical strength, innovative solutions, fast response time, and efficient support services are no doubt being highly recognized.
32K UIM card delivery takes up the highest percentage (23%) of the total card shipment, followed by the 32K STK cards and the 16K SIM cards. In addition, Watchdata is the exclusive supplier of the 64K Java cards. As commented by the Watchdata Marketing Department, the telecom industry is experiencing the 3G revolution, where value-added services become the new star amongst the primitive voice and SMS services. In order to fulfill the high-efficiency and smooth operation of the information society, Watchdata would not just focus on consolidating existing SIM card market share, but also put more emphasis in creating more flexible high-capacity STK, UIM, and Java with multiple applications. Moving forward, Watchdata will continue to provide more reputable, market-oriented yet innovative products for the telecom industry.
About Watchdata
Established in 1994, Watchdata is one of the leading data security and cipher technology companies in China. With the launch of China’s first own Proprietary smart card operating system TimeCOS, Watchdata has played a key and defining role in the promoting of smart card technology in China. Watchdata’s product offerings range from smart card operating system, smart card, card terminals, card management systems, public key infrastructure (PKI) products, to security consultants. Watchdata had shipped over 60 million smart cards in 2004, and was listed as the No. 6 smart card vendor worldwide (Source: Card Technology 2004 Annual Smart Card Vendor Survey).