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jayfehr

macrumors member
Nov 24, 2008
61
0
...with a catch

Yeah, we'll give you ours for free if you don't charge us for yours. Seems like a fair catch. Apple is trying to make this a free standard, why would they want to pay someone else of their product?
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
I've had 3 of the 4 major US carriers thank you very much. Totally switching to #4 (Verizon) when the LTE iPhone comes out, too.

Yes well you are, no offense, a bit weird then. I think the carrier churn rates are all under 5%, so by definition you're part of a minority crowd.

I understand the theoretical uses for a SIM card, but I have never once in my life actually removed a SIM card for any reason other than to look at it. (Wheee!)

I think I'm pretty average for an American in regards to this.
 

virtualSIM

macrumors newbie
Feb 24, 2012
26
41
What comes after the nano SIM? Since there'll be no more dead plastic to cut off, I guess the next step will be an embedded SIM, containing just a built in chip?
 

fat jez

macrumors 68020
Jun 24, 2010
2,083
614
Glasgow, UK
Why don't they use a device to load the data stored in the SIM directly on the iPhone? It would be surely more painless than changing a 14-year old standard, and could provide a smart way to prevent iTheft.

In a word, cloning. The SIM card stores the authentication keys used to encrypt any communication between your device and the network. As soon as you offer a mechanism to download this data to a device, no matter how secure you think the algorithms are, you are opening yourself up to a world of problems.
 

rivertrip

macrumors member
Jul 9, 2010
46
2
I'm curious about how a change in the dock connector would be received by consumers. There's such a huge collection of peripherals for the current dock connector. I wonder how many people would be willing to give them up. I bought three recent accessories with the current dock connector built into them, and they weren't cheap. I know that all technology changes over time, but I wouldn't be happy if I had to ditch my current accessories in order to upgrade my iDevices.

Wouldn't it be nice if Apple had a published road map of what their future held so we all could know what not to buy? (I'm sure their competition would love that.)

adaptor
a device for connecting pieces of equipment that cannot be connected directly
 

Rayday

macrumors member
Aug 13, 2009
31
0
Michigan

jhende7

macrumors regular
May 19, 2010
150
37
Please..

That 14 year old standard you're complaining about is one of the greatest innovations in mobile technology since the cell phone was invented.

The SIM "CARD" is one of the greatest inventions in mobile technology? Are you kidding me? Perhaps a great invention for the purpose of locking consumers into contracts? For being a tangible external eyesore and pain in the a**? For holding back new phone designs for the last 15 years?

No, the SIM Card * (in it's current form) is not an innovation in my eyes. It's whole purpose could be easily generated through software to provide a more sophisticated, but user friendly application.

20 years from now people will be laughing at the notion of us sticking little pieces of cardboard into the side of our phones to make them work. Frankly, it's ridiculous, archaic and not fit for the 21st century.
 
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Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
As a consumer don't want these nano-SIMS. The micro SIMS are already to small, difficult to handle and easy to loose - nano sims will be bastard things to try and deal with

Makes. No. Sense. Generally a consumer will never handle a SIM. Some, who are brave enough, and also have an unlocked phone, will swap out on international trips for a local SIM to save money. Most business people will not do this, however, because they need the same number everywhere they go.

OTOH a consumer interacts with their phone multiple times a day. Saving internal space to add more battery life or make it slimmer or add some new capability are things non-geek consumers actually care about more. Ask a random person on the street where their SIM is. If they know I bet they don't know how to open the tray b/c they never have had a need to get inside.
 

Kaibelf

Suspended
Apr 29, 2009
2,445
7,444
Silicon Valley, CA
For those asking what and why, etc.: The reason you would want this is twofold.

1. The vast majority of people don't juggle or ever eject their SIMs, but when it's necessary (emergency device replacement, for example), it's nice to have a reasonable way to access it. If the entire device is destroyed and the SIM is part of the logic board, it's definitely lost.
2. It allows people who never would need to eject their SIM, and even people who WOULD need to eject it, to have a smaller footprint, which leaves that tiny bit of room for things like better chips or a little more battery. This benefits everyone.

For the SIM-juggling people who complain about it being incredibly small and hard not to lose, that's a sad story. HOWEVER, it's such a marginal situation that it's really not fair to the 99.9% of people on the planet who, frankly, shouldn't do without the benefits because you feel a need to constantly change your SIM while lacking manual dexterity and/or good memory to deal with it.
 

acidfast7

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2008
1,437
5
EU
.

1. The vast majority of people don't juggle or ever eject their SIMs, but when it's necessary (emergency device replacement, for example),

"vast majority of people" ≠ Americans (who get locked-in and who never travel ... because they don't actually have any vacation days ... lol)
 

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
Such as...?

Come on, don't leave us hanging.

Sarcasm is clearly misplaced here. The catch is described in the original article. Apple offers its patent for free on condition that others will stop charging for their FRAND patents. They probably believe that the patent of a shape of a piece of cardboard is equally important as the patents on 3G etc. The most disgusting part here is that in order to make their patent a standard Apple are buying seats on the standard body.
 

garylapointe

macrumors 68000
Feb 19, 2006
1,886
1,245
Dearborn (Detroit), MI, USA
Apple believes in this enough to give it away for free in order for others to adopt it. What are some of the other proposals?
I'm assuming similar. But will be in debate for ages (years) for the standard. Plus, they'd probably want royalties from patents.

Apple will give all away royalties to get this moving.

$100,000,000 give you the options to do things like that :)

Gary
 

Rennir

macrumors 6502
Jan 13, 2012
457
0
Yeah, we'll give you ours for free if you don't charge us for yours. Seems like a fair catch. Apple is trying to make this a free standard, why would they want to pay someone else of their product?

Thing is, the other companies most likely have a lot of technology that Apple needs in order to build the iPhone (hence all the lawsuits over FRAND patents and such recently). Apple is trying to get their new SIM technology passed as the standard so they can get access to the technology of other companies for free.

It's not really a fair trade because other companies have their own versions, which means that the original idea isn't exclusive to Apple. However, with some of the technology that Apple hopes to be able to use for free, Motorola/Samsung actually did invent.

It's definitely a smart move by Apple, and considering the number of seats they bought on ETSI, it will probably even work. But there's an ulterior motive to their actions nonetheless, which is to be expected because Apple wouldn't still be in business of it decided to give stuff away for free all the time. There's always a catch.
 

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
And I'm sure it's superior, and 100% free as well? I mean, God knows Moto just loves to do that....

Yes, it is superior:

1. It has different dimensions than micro-SIM thus preventing users from jamming nano-SIMs into micro-SIMs slots.
2. It does not require a drawer

and, obviously, it's offered for free (with no conditions).
 

KevinN206

macrumors 6502
Jan 18, 2009
473
382
The SIM "CARD" is one of the greatest inventions in mobile technology? Are you kidding me? Perhaps a great invention for the purpose of locking consumers into contracts? For being a tangible external eyesore and pain in the a**? For holding back new phone designs for the last 15 years?

No, the SIM Card * (in it's current form) is not an innovation in my eyes. It's whole purpose could be easily generated through software to provide a more sophisticated, but user friendly application.

20 years from now people will be laughing at the notion of us sticking little pieces of cardboard into the side of our phones to make them work. Frankly, it's ridiculous, archaic and not fit for the 21st century.
I would rather not having to hook up the phone to a computer to "download" the SIM information. It's just much simplier to swap SIM card if needed without downloading anything. You mean the SIM holder on the iPhone is an eyesore? And software-based SIM card won't lock you into a contract? I can take my SIM card right now, and place it into ANY carrier-compatible phone, and it'll work right away. No software. No downloading. Works on dumbphone too.
 
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