Dual SIM: the Archive's Last Big Innovation

Two phone cards in a single device seems like an obvious idea: one number for work and one personal, or two carriers to pay less. And yet, in our archive's data, Dual SIM is a surprisingly late arrival — and for that very reason it tells us a lot about how tech trends work.

Up until 2006, not a single model appears. The first two arrive in 2007, making up just 0.4% of the 499 phones released that year: the Philips 699 Dual SIM, which even says so in its name, and the Samsung D880 Duos. In 2008 the number grows to eight. Then the curve takes off.

Year	Dual SIM Models	Share
2007	2	0.4%
2008	8	1.4%
2009	40	7.4%
2010	85	18.9%
2011	97	21.0%
2012	130	33.7%
2013	60	38.7%

In six years, the count goes from two models to nearly four out of ten. In the archive as a whole, there are 431 Dual SIM phones.

The most instructive thing, though, is who was making them. Alongside Samsung (57 models) and Philips (25) come names that don't say much in Italy: Micromax with 57 models — exactly as many as Samsung — then Blu (53) and Spice (33). These are brands born for markets where having two carriers on the same phone isn't a convenience but a daily economic necessity. Dual SIM didn't come from the top, from the big manufacturers: it rose from the bottom, and the big names followed.

Among the Dual SIM models most voted for by our readers are the Samsung B7722 and the Nokia C2-00, both from 2010: budget phones, no frills, exactly the segment where dual SIM made the most sense.

This is also the last big wave the archive manages to document: coverage thins out after 2013, and the story that follows — that of smartphones — is told elsewhere. That's why Dual SIM remains, in these pages, the last real innovation.

Want to see another technology that replaced its predecessor within just a few years? We talk about it in Bluetooth and Infrared: The Changing of the Guard.