French SIM card vendor Gemalto expects to ride to a strong fourth-quarter performance on the back of higher demand for LTE SIMs.
The company, which is set to release its fourth-quarter results March 14, will at least meet its profit forecast of €300 million from 2012 operations, CEO Olivier Piou said in an interview with Bloomberg. The increase of 25.5 per cent or more--Gemalto's biggest in four years—is being spurred by the adoption of LTE technology, he said.
"Every time a 4G phone is activated, Gemalto gets paid," Piou told Bloomberg. "We already charge a premium for 4G SIM cards. The next step is growing our revenue from services like mobile payment and advertising."
Of note, Piou said that the company's SIM card business was feeling the effect as more U.S. consumers switch to using LTE, resulting in fresh business for Gemalto. However, Piou added that European operators were falling behind their U.S. counterparts in efforts to boost tariffs with faster service.
New services such as mobile payment and advertising on smartphones will also drive sales, said Piou, but, "for innovation in LTE services, you'll have to look to the U.S. and Asia."
The company has said it will unveil a new multi-year strategic plan in the second half of this year.
Separately, Gemalto is partnering with Ericsson in an effort to simplify the adoption of machine-to-machine technology. The agreement will integrate Ericsson's device connection platform with Gemalto's subscription management platform to offer operators an easier route to better manage the long M2M life cycles and complexities associated with business process integration.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Ericsson release
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