The GSMA has established a group to draw up industry agreed specifications for an embedded SIM card.
The industry and the GSMA recognise that with the prospect of over 10 billion Mobile to Mobile (M2M) subscriptions likely by 2020 as part of the Internet of Things (IoT) the issue and control of mobile subscriptions using traditional SIM cards will be impractical. The new standard which is being developed by a number of operators, network and device and SIM card suppliers.
The first technical definition was release in February to GSMA and SIM Alliance members.
There is more information on the GSMA web site here.