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June 30, 2010
Dual-SIM handsets are a segment of the handset market that’s showing strong growth, and nowhere is this more apparent than in India and Russia.
Prepaid SIMs make up the vast majority of SIMs in both countries. India and Russia are also the largest multi-SIM markets, each with around 120 million users with more than a single SIM.
As I discuss in my recent Pyramid Research Insider, Market Factors Indicate Stronger Growth for Multi-SIM Handsets, there are a few key drivers of high multi-SIM adoption in these countries:
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Cost reduction by price-sensitive users
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High adoption of prepaid SIMs
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Competitive nature of the markets
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Distinctions between local and national call prices
All these factors result in operators, particularly the market challengers and followers, offering tariffs and pricing promotions to gain some portion of a user’s spending, typically through on-net, local or off-peak rates.
This allows price-sensitive users the opportunity to lower their overall costs by using more than a single network. That in turn has driven demand for dual-SIM handsets, a segment of the handset market dominated by Chinese and Indian handset vendors. Download a free excerpt of my Insider and read more about it. You can also purchase the report here.
For more context, see our companion Insider on the state of the global smartphone market today, which discusses ways that operators and vendors can position themselves to meet the growing demand for smartphones, especially in emerging markets. Download a free excerpt or watch a preview. You can also purchase the report here.
We've also published a Research Report called Prepaid Mobile Services: Using New Business Models to Boost Profits, which shows how operators can optimally position their prepaid model and choose the strategies that have proven successful with the most profitable prepaid players. Download a free excerpt or watch a preview. You can also purchase the report here.
— Jan ten Sythoff, Analyst at large
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Pyramid Points
