Press Release, 17 September 2025
For years, swapping out plastic SIM cards was as much a ritual as buying a new phone. But that tiny chip is finally going digital—and the shift is happening faster than anyone expected.
According to ABI Research, a staggering 403 million consumer devices and 140 million IoT devices with eSIM will ship in 2025. From smartphones to smart factories, the eSIM revolution is officially here.
Smartphones Lead the Charge
Despite a rocky smartphone market in 2022 and 2023, sales rebounded sharply in 2024 and continue to surge into 2025. One big reason? eSIM adoption.
- In 2024, 66% of eSIM-enabled shipments came from smartphones.
- By 2025, that number will jump to 74%.
“With over 70% of smartphones still lacking eSIM support, the continued march towards full market penetration leaves smartphones standing as the largest eSIM growth area by volume through 2030,” explains Georgia Cooke, Research Analyst at ABI Research.
Translation: your next phone almost certainly won’t need a physical SIM slot.
China Joins the eSIM Race
If you thought eSIM adoption was already big, brace yourself—China is finally opening the floodgates.
China Unicom has launched a pilot scheme to enable eSIM in smartphones, unlocking the last major smartphone market that had yet to embrace the technology. With its sheer shipment volume, Asia-Pacific will dominate eSIM growth from 2025 to 2030, with a jaw-dropping 22.8% CAGR, compared to just 6.2% in North America and 9.8% in Western Europe.
Apple’s Bold Bet (and Why It Matters)
Apple has already gone all in—offering eSIM-only iPhones in the United States. This leapfrogs the usual lag between hardware availability and user adoption. Other manufacturers are expected to follow, accelerating the pace of change across Europe and beyond.
For mobile operators, the message is clear: get ready to scale eSIM support. ABI Research projects over 1 billion consumer eSIM profile downloads by 2029—a massive opportunity for carriers, service vendors, and infrastructure providers.
Beyond Smartphones: IoT’s eSIM Future
While smartphones dominate shipments, the IoT market is quietly preparing for its own eSIM boom. The upcoming SGP.32 standard will remove many of the technical barriers holding back IoT deployments, enabling industries from logistics to healthcare to scale faster with secure, flexible connectivity.
Why This Moment Matters
We’re not just talking about convenience. The eSIM shift is a structural transformation that impacts:
- Consumers → Easier carrier switching, more travel-friendly devices.
- Operators → A new era of digital-first customer onboarding.
- Businesses → IoT deployments at scale, powered by flexible connectivity.
As ABI Research notes, “This is something of a pre-emptive moment for the eSIM market, with the big changes coming at the end of 2025 and throughout 2026.”
