London, 6th June 2008, SIMalliance announces that Watchdata - the N°6 smart card player in the World (Gartner CY07 Chip Card Market Share Survey) and the one of largest domestic supplier of smart cards in China - today reinforced its commitment to common and interoperable SIM, handset and wireless platform architectures by officially joining the association.
The Watchdata membership further establishes SIMalliance's global footprint and confirms the association’s position as the reference organisation for the SIM Industry.
With this extended geographical coverage the SIMalliance, whose role is to advance operability between SIM, handsets and wireless platforms, will be able to better steer its development to meet the practical needs of the mobile market. The alliance’s unequalled knowledge of “global” markets enables members to foresee and facilitate new services and content opportunities arising from the convergence of mobile communications with the Internet and the Media worlds.
Mobile Eco-System Players need to deploy global solutions quickly while responding to the ever increasing needs of their customers for services and content that cater to individual customer demands. As mobile devices undergo rapid transformation from voice communicators to tailor-made personal services and content access devices, the SIM card inside is not only the most flexible and secure universal platform allowing for sophisticated personalisation of services and content, it also permits dynamic OTA management when already in service.
“This new membership shows a real maturity of the Industry and confirms that the SIMalliance is a truly global organisation”, says Michel Canitrot, Chairman of SIMalliance. “Following the path of GSM technology, which has been a success mainly due to its global interoperability, the SIM card is poised to turn into a true revenue generator for operators, handsets and services & content providers, allowing them not only to provide secure identity across networks but foster access to personalized & ubiquitous services and empower new successful business models”
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Commenting on joining the alliance, Michael Yu, VP for international business of Watchdata said: “We are proud to be one of the world leading SIM card players, to promote the SIM as the secure & flexible tool to deliver multi-application and pioneering mobile services, Our tie-up with SIMalliance shows our commitment to work with all the participants of the mobile services ecosystem to bring innovative SIM technology into full play.”
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Note to editors:
About SIMalliance: Putting the SIM at the heart of the new mobile eco-system
Over the past five years SIMalliance has become one of the world’s foremost commentators in the mobile business. By operating outside the singular commercial interests of any individual SIM card player, the association has been able to pinpoint the mission critical services on the horizon and help steer their development to meet the practical needs of the mobile market.
With SIMalliance members* now responsible for nine in every ten SIM cards sold worldwide, the collective vision of the association is uniquely placed to shape SIM developments and the impact they will have on the new generation of mobile services. From their standpoint, the challenge couldn’t be clearer for the protagonists in the mobile eco-system.
* SIMalliance members are: Eastcompeace, Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, Incard, Oberthur Card Systems, Prism (A Net1 Company), Sagem Orga, SanDisk, Watchdata and XPonCard
Catherine Rossignol-Jaymond
SIMalliance – Marketing Director
+33 6 30 57 89 06
catherine.rossignol-jaymond[at]simalliance.org
About Watchdata
Watchdata Systems Co. Ltd., is a well established and recognized pioneer in smart card and contactless technology solutions. Watchdata offerings include SIMpassTM, digital signature and authentication solutions, embedded security access module and the award winning
used in the fields of cashless payment, e-commerce, health and social services, and telecommunication. Watchdata serves numerous markets including mobile telecommunication, transportation, social security, finance, identification, public utilities, e-government and e-commerce.
Beijing Watchdata Systems Ltd.
N0.2, Wanhong West Street, Capital Airport Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015
Tel : (86)10 6472 2288
Fax : (86)10 6472 6134
Web Site : http://www.watchdata.com