e-Smart, day3. The program indicated a few talks that attempted to find a reason for the big SIM cards. I selected the one from Lorenzo Stranges, because I often like Oberthur’s marketing pitches. He started with a few statements:
- There are many actors who want to get into the mobile value added services market.
- The high-capacity cards allows operators to stay at the center of the value chain.
- Operators are best positioned for pushing services, thus helping the consumers.
After that, he defined what his product is. A hi-capacity card is a combination of 4 things:
- Large memory capacity. The memory is split between a standard flash card, and a protected area in which the operator can managet content.
- Smart card-level security. The protected area gets the same security level as with traditional smart cards.
- The new user interface made possible by TCP/IP
- The strong connection to the operator netwwork
There are other architectures, and in particular the ones in which the memory is not directly controlled by the smart card microcontroller are not really hi-capacity smart cards. I am not sure to agree with him: if you can encrypt the memory and need the smart card controller to decrypt it, you don’t need a single chip (it may even be more secure, although less efficient).
Another important point is the Smart Card Web Server, because it is a way to browse services in a standard way. The server on the card is just another server. He reconginzed that OTA management remains an issue, as there is no standard to route TCP/IP to the SIM. However, we know that this will be addressed soon if there is a market.
The next question is the business model. In particular, who will pay for the card:
- End users. Paying for memory to fill with digital content. Mobility (always with me), security (sensitive data protected by PIN), portability (changing phone, keeping the SIM and the content).
- Operators. Possibility to have an offline portal delivered to the user, for instance videos explaining the operator’s services. Also, possibility to segment customers by profile.
- Corporates. Mobile email application, in secured memory.
- Third parties. Advertising, anything possible on Internet
I found this very unsavory, especially as an end-user. I have a Windows smartphone with a standard SIM, a Gb memory card and a WiFi connection, and I don’t see the need for a big SIM.
So I asked a question: “As an end-user, I want my content to be accessible anywhere. My e-mail, images, and blogs are on Internet, my music and videos are on my home server. Any content stored in my SIM card is stuck on my phone”.
The answer to my question was not very satisfactory, explaining how I don’t have the bandwidth for transferring music, that remote content is not secure, and other things. WiFi and removable micro-SD is better for now than the “removable” SIM that sits under my battery. Sure, I can do with a hi-capacity SIM what I can already do, but I still can’t see any advantage, except if the space comes for free. I still am quite wary of this technology, like I am of the similar ones: they surely present an advantage for greedy businessmen, but I don’t see the advantage for the end-user. As an industry, we will need to be more imaginative: maybe the mashup idea could work. Let’s just hope that Gemalto does not get rid too fast of all its Vandewalle’s, because they need them.
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