The SIMalliance vendor group said its members shipped 78 million NFC SIMs last year, with Japan and South Korea again the top destination for the high-end cards.

The shipment estimate offered no surprises and showed major deployments of NFC SIMs had not yet begun last year for a number of major operators in many parts of the world. Japanese and Korean telcos accounted for nearly half of shipments, while North American operators–mainly telcos in the Isis joint venture, took delivery of around 24 million cards. Most of the Isis SIMs were shipped during the second half of 2013. 

The 78 million in NFC SIM shipments fell in line with projections last September by the GSMA mobile trade group and also an estimate by the largest SIM supplier, Gemalto, which forecast shipments of around 80 million cards for 2013. The GSMA later increased that to 90 million to 100 million.