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Apple Has Considered Removing SIM Card Slot From Some iPhone 14 Models

What if you have kids.

You want them to use cheap throwaway phone (kids get robbed) when they go out alone and they can use an iPhone when they are with a guardian.

They need a physical sim.
 
Until I can install an eSIM if I erase my iPhone, move the eSIM between different iPhones as well as Android devices, and not have to pay extra compared to physical, all without needing to contact the carrier I have no interest in this.

There are plenty of ways for carriers to make them worse if allowed. Just having options goes a long way to preventing that. My carrier doesn't even support eSIM, which in itself is an attempt to upsell.
 
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I hate this, it's like going back to the old CDMA days when you had to call the carrier for any device change. If I'm overseas, and want to swap between my SIM card and a local SIM card, the LAST thing I want to do is call my stateside carrier, wait on hold, explain why I want to do this, and hope they bless it.
 
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I mean, that is no surprise that the SIM slot is the next.
I am totally OK with it, switched to eSIM a year ago.

And you all know that Apple is doing this, all the other companies will follow. In 2 or 3 years you won't find any device with a SIM slot anymore.
 
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I like some changes. Not this change, though. Feels like loss of control for consumer than any sort of benefit for consumer.
 
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this would be an unnecessary change. If you don’t want to use a sim then use an e-sim but for those who prefer the more straight-forward regular sim it’s nice that that option remains. Older people or if you just quickly want to buy a sim for a vacation and availability are all legit reasons in my opinion to keep the sim
 
Nahmeanz said:
Until major carriers in every country make it really simple to load eSims like you're saying, we still need physical slim slots. I travel almost every other week to another country and most places sell local sim cards at baggage claim or even at immigration.

Right now on my 12 Pro Max, my main Tmobile line is on eSim and I use the physical sim for whichever country I am in.
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Different argument, and I agree with you, that the bottleneck are the carriers.
But the post that I replied to was implying that swapping SIM is "easier" than eSIM, and I posted otherwise.

I have been to airports, landing at night/early mornings, and no stores were open. Smaller airports don't even have any stores selling SIMs until you are outside.
 
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ponzicoinbro said:
What if you have kids.

You want them to use cheap throwaway phone (kids get robbed) when they go out alone and they can use an iPhone when they are with a guardian.

They need a physical sim.
Click to expand...
At least with eSIM, the thief cannot just remove the SIM and misuse it. With physical SIM, the thief can just remove the SIM and then misuse it.
 
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ostrykolesz said:
Big mistake, I need that SIM for cheap internet when I travel for business and pleasure... That would make me leave Apple.
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That's chicken and egg problem. eSIM was supposed to make things like more convenient, especially for tourists. But the carriers are the ones making it more complicated that it supposed to be, or dragging their feet refusing to support it (presumably since their main KPIs were still physical SIM distribution).

Hopefully with Apple doing this can force these lazy carriers to support eSIM.
 
driven01 said:
I hate this, it's like going back to the old CDMA days when you had to call the carrier for any device change. If I'm overseas, and want to swap between my SIM card and a local SIM card, the LAST thing I want to do is call my stateside carrier, wait on hold, explain why I want to do this, and hope they bless it.
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I think it's an incorrect mindset. What you want is for all carriers to support eSIM.

I have put out my example, where I found a local Malaysian MVNO allowing online purchase of their eSIM. I bought it beforehand, they emailed me the QR code, I scan it on my S21, flew there, landed, switched the eSIM on, and I was on the way. Easy peasy, no need to fumble around looking for stores selling SIM or wifi hotspot. And it's a local SIM with local number and cheap rates. I wish every carriers around the world would do this.
 
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ian87w said:
That's chicken and egg problem. eSIM was supposed to make things like more convenient, especially for tourists. But the carriers are the ones making it more complicated that it supposed to be, or dragging their feet refusing to support it (presumably since their main KPIs were still physical SIM distribution).

Hopefully with Apple doing this can force these lazy carriers to support eSIM.
Click to expand...
I think carriers are being cautious because they don’t yet understand all the potential crimes around provisioning and transferring of esims, it seems like they are doing everything in baby steps.
 
svish said:
eSIM may be the future. But more network operators should support and allow for easy eSIM switching between devices outside the US. Possible that devices sold in US could come only with eSIM next year. For the rest of the world, nano SIM may continue for some more time.
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That's the thing. Chicken and egg. Hopefully with Apple doing it, more carriers would move their lazy butt to support eSIM.

I can see US being the first country to go eSIM only iPhone. That will force countries that rely on business travelers and tourists to wake up and support eSIM properly.
 
ACDeag said:
I think carriers are being cautious because they don’t yet understand all the potential crimes around provisioning and transferring of esims, it seems like they are doing everything in baby steps.
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No, they're just lazy. Physical SIM are much more easier to be stolen and abuse. eSIM are essentially safer, and many of these same lazy carriers are already offering eSIM for their postpaid customers only, meaning that it is doable and safe.

Or, they have pre-existing contracts and KPIs that count their performance with the sales/distribution of the physical SIM, and the lazy managers just don't want to adapt. Majority of subscribers in Asia are prepaid/no-contract. So selling physical SIM cards in itself is a business. Simple greed and laziness.

In my country, the 4th carrier (the smallest) supports eSIM, and they can convert physical SIM to eSIM, back-n-forth, effortlessly (you still need to go to the carrier shop, but it's free and the cs person can do it quickly). So it's doable. Don't tell me the other much larger carriers cannot figure it out.
 
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driven01 said:
Except they don't work that way. You need to call the carrier and deal with them.
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I agree that's a problem, but that's a carrier problem (US carrier mainly, I believe), not the technology.

M1 Singapore is selling tourists eSIM at convenient stores. Instead of an actual SIM, you just get a piece of paper with QR code. Simply scan it, activate it, and done.

Maybe Apple should push a bit more, requiring carriers supporting eSIM to be more seamless with less barriers.
 
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IPhone Xs, the first one with dual SIM, had physical + eSIM in most of the world, but dual physical SIM in HK. They could do something similar depending on how talks with carrier are going per country.

Hopefully this would be a US thing only so our overpriced European iPhone would at least be superior to justify the price /s

Overall I believe that eSIM is a mess.

Currently there are two potential pros. The first one is for travel eSIM. You get at the airport, pay your eSIM, scan a QR code and voilà you are ready to go. Another benefit I could see is that the moment you subscribe online you can instantly use your cell plan, no need to wait to get your SIM card delivered. But it’s not even the case as carriers need couple days to activate your line, at least in France. As a solution one these carriers give a temporary number but it’s really not ideal.

And that’s about it for the pros while there are many cons. As other have said, anytime you have to do anything with your eSIM you’ll have to deal with carrier and eventually pay for it. It’s a mess to change your eSIM from iOS to Android and it’s even a mess to change it from an iPhone to another as your eSIM is on the device and not on ICloud.

So overall for now eSIM for a long-term line sucks while it’s fine for a temporary one (but not very privacy respectful).

I tried eSIM once, it was super difficult to understand how to set it up, even as a tech adverse person. Couple months later my phone died because of some water on the FaceID sensor. It was a great day, I was both furious that some drops of water killed my $1000 iPhone and I lost my eSIM the same day :)

IMHO eSIM can be the future and has to take over physical SIM at some point but it will only happen when they reach feature parity between SIM and eSIM + sell prepaid private eSIM + eSIM working on all devices + eSIM working the moment you pay for it
 
turbineseaplane said:
Because something is possible, doesn't detract from the wonderful and lovely flexibility of doing all this the "normal way" with a simple sim swap
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But using an ESIM for your prime network leaves the physical SIM free for use when travelling! Not needing a SIM swap at all. Just taking out the SIM sometime. (Unless you need to go to a second physical SIM for some reason.)

(Obviously not possible on a pure ESIM phone. But an argument in favour of ESIMs in general.)

And wouldn't it be neat if you could put a physical SIM into your phone and tell IOS to copy it as an ESIM. Then take the SIM out. Repeat as often as needed.
 
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iSuzan said:
I mean, that is no surprise that the SIM slot is the next.
I am totally OK with it, switched to eSIM a year ago.

And you all know that Apple is doing this, all the other companies will follow. In 2 or 3 years you won't find any device with a SIM slot anymore.
Click to expand...
Motorola was first with the first foldable RAZR being eSIM only.
All recent Samsung Galaxy S and foldables support eSIM as well.
But when it comes to giving carriers pressure, Apple might be able to do it better than the others.
 
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ostrykolesz said:
Big mistake, I need that SIM for cheap internet when I travel for business and pleasure... That would make me leave Apple.
Click to expand...
I don’t think sim resellers will abandon such a large and premium market share
Especially has not having to deal with physical sim has some advantage for them
 
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joshen said:
All carriers need to make the process of creating a new eSIM easier first. Switching phones is a nuisance right now, with having to contact the carrier each time to issue a new QR code.
Click to expand...

Agree. I think a lot of people already using and singing the praises of eSIMs might be having second thoughts if they're also planning on getting new Day 1 iPhones, and finding that 'quick call' to their service provider suddenly isn't quite that quick or straight forward when there's several thousand other new owners trying to do the same thing.
 
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00sjsl said:
But for budget carriers that would mean extra costs which would have to be passed on to the customer.
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I don't know anything about the economics of carriers, but they would at least no longer need to pay for SIMs to be manufactured and distributed.

Given the QR code approach, it appears that is the only thing the customers require. (Obviously many carriers have failed to reach that point - yet.)
 
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