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Apple Offers Royalty-Free Patent Licenses to Push Proposed Nano-SIM Standard
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No sarcasm. Sorry if you saw some.
The way he said it really made me think he was referring to something additional that was not in the article. Like he knew more than this article said.
I was just asking what he meant. He answered and now I know.
You have the option of buying a full price unlocked phone from a retailer and a pay as you go SIM from any GSM (by GSM, I mean GSM/UMTS/HSPA/LTE - technologies of the same family that use SIMs) carrier and you won't be locked in any contract. If you don't like your carrier, buy a SIM from another one and put it in your phone.
That's harder to do on SIM-less CDMA carriers where you have to buy a phone from them. They might let you pay full price and sign up without a contract. I'm not sure. But you have to buy the phone from them, you don't get to choose from the vast selection of unlocked GSM phones out there and your phone can't usually be used on another CDMA carrier.
It's even harder to pull off in the US where 2 of the 4 major carriers are CDMA and the other two GSM carriers don't even use the same frequencies for 3G. But in Europe, it's more practical. Plus people in the US like getting phones for dirt cheap in exchange for a two year contract.
The SIM in most phones is underneath the battery cover. In the Phone, it's hidden away inside a tray. Put a bumper or case on your phone and you won't even see the tray. What phone are you using where the SIM is an external eyesore?
15 year old phone with a SIM card:
Recent phone with a SIM card:
Yup, looks like design has been held back thanks to the SIM card.
Hmm, what's more user friendly. Swapping a card between two phones which doesn't even take a minute. Or, installing software/drivers on your computer, then plugging your phone into a computer, then opening said software, then doing whatever's required in said software to update your phone.
Even my parents who are computer illiterate can swap a SIM card between two phones.
I think in 20 years, we'll still be using SIM cards and laughing at your post.
Think outside the box for a second. When we say simless we aren't referring to CDMA, we are referring to soft sim cards.
Meaning Phones will have the software capable of switching carriers.
This is why Carriers are against it, the ease of switching carriers.
I could buy a phone, input my SIM details in to the settings and it will look all available carriers in the area, I click on the carrier I currently want to sign up with and I am giving with a list of plans etc.
Now say I travel and go to another country, instead of going to a local shop to buy a SIM card, my phone simply finds the local carriers I choose from my phone which one I would like and its done. All the information is stored on your phone and not a chip.
He could be the Sprint guy too
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In Europe all data-enabled phones have to use the same type charger interface which just happend to be Micro USB. Apple was a signatory to the agreement.That is a pretty good reason to switch.
This has been widely discussed as the standard for charging....
Here is one of the more recent ones..http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/01/05/eu-standard-phone-charger-coming-this-year/
Nice. I see a future where I shoulder-surf while you do that, then pull another phone out of its box, and set it up using the same information you just used, associating *my* phone with *your* phone number, leaving you unable to make/receive calls and stuck footing the bill for my cell-phone usage. Or worse, *able* to make and receive calls, but still stuck footing the bill for *my* usage in addition to your own. (That's worse because there wouldn't be any outward signs that something was wrong until you got your bill!)
I'll stick with the physical sim that I can move from phone to phone as needed, and not have to worry about going through a set-up process that requires the device having access to the cellular networks *before* it has access to the cellular networks (because it doesn't have the requisite keys on board yet). I also won't have to worry about you 'borrowing' my info without me knowing about it, because the key bits *only* exist on the physical sim card that I just plugged into my new phone.
Belkin etc. will have an adapter out within 5 minutes.
Non issue, problem will be it's $ 29.95
I get to meet this guy in May!
I can't wait!I think Apple is giving it free because no one will pay for it. I think the phones are thin enough as they are myself. I don't want it so thin it snaps in two if you put in your pocket.
There is LTE in many countries, but Apple choose to use the USA standard frequencies and no else.
And that catch is why nano sim is going to be DOA if Apple version is approved.
It does not offer anything to make it better over the standard sim card or much less micro sim. Microsim was not picked up because it it did not offer anything to make it really in better than the sim card that that been in use.
It would only be Apple who picks it up at most. Apple is buying votes which in itself is not right.
I get to meet this guy in May!
I think Apple is giving it free because no one will pay for it. I think the phones are thin enough as they are myself. I don't want it so thin it snaps in two if you put in your pocket.
I don't even think this has to do with thickness. As I understand it, the regular SIM, micro SIM and nano SIM are all the same thickness (about that of a credit card). The only thing the nano SIM is doing is shaving off that extra millimeter or two of plastic around the contact pad. Not sure what that tiny bit of extra space will buy them.
Edit: Wikipedia actually has a handy chart. All SIMs are the same thickness (0.76mm). A micro SIM is 15x12mm and a nano SIM is 12mmx9mm. Seems like the law of diminishing returns here....
Oh my God, it's the SIM discussion! OK, for some reason, Americans have to chime in and say that if we get rid of sim cards, we could have a cell phone utopia.
Wrong. Sim cards are not the issue. It's the sad state of American cell telephony that's the issue. You could have a cellphone revolution if every carrier in the US used the same cell phone technology. In Europe, GSM is used everywhere and therefore ANY phone you get from ANY carrier can be mixed up with whatever SIM card and be used however you want. Want to put a pay as you go sim in your iphone? Go ahead. Did you iphone or blackberry break and your friend lends you his old Nokia as a temporary replacement? Go ahead! No worry about it being locked to a certain carrier since we are allowed to unlock our phones after 3 months of purchase.
Because the technology is the same, there is more healthy competition. In the US, each carrier uses a different technology. CDMA or GSM and even then, you can't use a Sprint phone on a Verizon network. It's all locked down with their proprietary systems.
I currently live in France, and I recently switched carriers. I pay 2 a month for 60 minutes of call time and 60 text messages. I was able to carry my number over, switch plans AND keep my phone with just 10 minutes of my time. Imagine trying to do that in the States!
You sound like my Grandpa going on about how his 32 inch tube tv is just as good as these new fangled HDTVs.
A couple decades down the road, the notion of SIMs (as we have them today) will be ridiculous. It will be like when our parents told us about the times well before TV, or more recently the internet.
Remember when cell phones had extendable antennas? Very useful for getting 2 inches closer a reciever 10 km away!
Your thinking way to inside the box my friend! I'm afraid you'd never make it as an Apple engineer.
so when i sold my iphone 4 back in october instead of just taking the sim card out and popping it in a spare phone you think that is just too hard and inside the box?
having to go to a cell phone company and get them to switch your information from one phone to another seems like alot more work than the two seconds it takes to pop the card out. As it stands companies like verizon and sprint that dont use sim cards will not let you buy an unlocked phone and take it to another carrier if you please. With sim cards you can walk into a store buy an unlocked phone and use it on any carrier you'd like that suppports the radio's in your phone.
How having the ability to switch phones or carriers within seconds is "behind the times" as your grandpa HDTV analogy infers seems backwards. Having to go to a company and let them switch your phone seems behind the times to me.
Wirelessly posted
You still don't get it, your just thinking so old school. There would be no "going to carriers" You would boot up your phone, choose your carrier and be on your way.
People have been so brainwashed by the whole "SIM" thing that they just can't wrap their head around the fact there a tool carriers use to oppress consumers and their choices.
CRIIM44 said:You sound like my Grandpa going on about how his 32 inch tube tv is just as good as these new fangled HDTVs.
A couple decades down the road, the notion of SIMs (as we have them today) will be ridiculous. It will be like when our parents told us about the times well before TV, or more recently the internet.
Remember when cell phones had extendable antennas? Very useful for getting 2 inches closer a reciever 10 km away!
Your thinking way to inside the box my friend! I'm afraid you'd never make it as an Apple engineer.
so when i sold my iphone 4 back in october instead of just taking the sim card out and popping it in a spare phone you think that is just too hard and inside the box?
having to go to a cell phone company and get them to switch your information from one phone to another seems like alot more work than the two seconds it takes to pop the card out. As it stands companies like verizon and sprint that dont use sim cards will not let you buy an unlocked phone and take it to another carrier if you please. With sim cards you can walk into a store buy an unlocked phone and use it on any carrier you'd like that suppports the radio's in your phone.
How having the ability to switch phones or carriers within seconds is "behind the times" as your grandpa HDTV analogy infers seems backwards. Having to go to a company and let them switch your phone seems behind the times to me.
You still don't get it, your just thinking so old school. There would be no "going to carriers" You would boot up your phone, choose your carrier and be on your way.
People have been so brainwashed by the whole "SIM" thing that they just can't wrap their head around the fact there a tool carriers use to oppress consumers and their choices.
I'm not too worried about which nano sim standard is used. I just want one that is smaller (for a smaller device or more stuff) and standard (so we can swap it from phone to phone).
You should explain why you think SIM cards and USA carrier tech choice are related. I'm not seeing it.
The USA carriers are finally heading towards compatible tech. The question is, which will it be? All your blathering is just useless talk about old issues. Try something new!
In a perfect world that would be awesome but the only reason most people have anything more than a dumb phone is carrier subsidation what you are thinking of there would be no contracts and everyone would buy a 5-600 device which I highly doubt would happen.
How is a sim card a tool carriers use to oppress consumers? I bought my 4S unlocked and have the choice to switch between any carrier that supports it. Just like when I went to Spain a few weeks ago I picked up a local sim card and had data and everything else. My friend that came with me with his Verizon phone could only access wifi.
Is one allowed to buy a Verizon iphone in the states, have it legally unlocked by Verizon itself after 3 months, free of charge, and then switch to whatever carrier they want with the mere switch of a tiny little card? If I am mistaken, I will gladly eat my shoe. I haven't lived in the states in 3 years, so perhaps the carriers are more flexible now.
People who have lived in America have been forced to accept a telephony service that nickles and dimes them everywhere they turn; where they have the pay for incoming calls and texts (something unheard of and absolutely unthinkable in Europe), pay up to 40 dollars for basic service, and on some dumbphones, PAY the carriers just to unlock bluetooth (looking at you Verizon). They know they're being screwed and they think that the answer is a simless card system.
My argument is that because the technology is so fractured and proprietary in the US, you can't have healthy competition that favors consumers. One has to choose between AT&T or Verizon and if you buy a nice phone from one of those carriers, good luck trying to switch to the other with your old phone. So you're stuck with them and they can charge whatever they like.
In Europe, where GSM and sim cards are a Continent-wide standard, I can just hop on craigslist or ebay or the local phone shop and pick whatever phone I want and pop my sim card in. I pick the phone. I pick the plan. In Europe, these are treated as two separate entities. I don't have to worry about CDMA or GSM or whosever flavor of LTE will work with what phone. This, in my very humble opinion is real choice and it's all because of standards.
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This discussion is about the future. Can't you see that? Right in the title: Proposed.