Apple Promotes Benefits of Using iPhone 14 With eSIM While Traveling Abroad

[Jim Lahey]

I understand the benefits of eSIM but eSIM-only just feels like Apple making life more difficult for the user. Again.

Truth be told it probably saves Cook ten cents on the cost of the SIM tray and associated hardware.

 

[GadgetBen]

All these da people who fear change. First it was the headphone jack and now this nonsense.

 

[macduke]

Apple always errs on the side of removing old tech. The downside is clear, the upside is that by removing old tech, you help push the industry away from it.

Those carriers will want the business of iPhone customers coming into their country. They will upgrade their systems. Only thing that sucks is the transition period. Sometimes you have to rip the bandaid off and it hurts, but it will probably only hurt for a year or two. If this is that much of an issue, buy an iPhone 7 for cheap and use it in East Africa or wherever for a year or two until the straggling carriers get on board. The cost of an iPhone 7 compared to international travel right now is nothing.

Apple has done this before, with headphone jacks, optical drives, 30-pin connectors, Flash, floppy drives, etc. They were right every time, and every time people were absolutely pissed. And they will eventually be right about this too, and everyone will laugh about how cute and quaint it seems to carry around a series of tiny cards to gently place into a wee little tray that slides into your phone to connect to a network. I'm glad they're killing off SIM cards forever. Apple has the market share to get it done. They've waited long enough having eSIM with trays for 5 years. This one deserves a big fat FINALLY.

 

[freedomlinux]

It takes time. In 10 years all new flagship phones will be esim only

Will Apple influence carrier behavior by doing this? Yes, probably

Do I care? No. People want their phones to work NOW not 10 years from now.

 

[RickDEGH]

I'm just astonished at how much Apple has become so arrogant. Serioulsy, has anyone here in the past few months tried to activate an eSim with any carrier in the US? Well, I have tried many times with Verizon and T-Mobile and I have to say it's a nightmare!! Yes, surely they may have fixed and trained the carriers here in the US to activate eSims, but, can you imagine going to somewhere like Greece (Trust me, I was there and tried with Cosmote - impossible), Ghana, Guatemala etc where there is perhaps no such thing as an eSim or, you simply can't speak the language to activate an eSim at the local corner store?

I agree with you on Ghana - the carriers there have no mention of eSIMs at all.

 

[erikkfi]

Is the first benefit “it makes the iPhone a little cheaper for us to build, and it’s not like we have to figure out your eSIM situation for you or anything”

 

[_Spinn_]

When support is universal then eSIM will be better.

 

[Krispykrme]

That's the thing – I've been doing eSIM with travel (and my domestic carrier is eSIM) since the jump and never have to do this. I simply set up the eSIM before I even leave home, toggle it on in destination country, and never go to one of those kiosks again.

We all know this is not true for some of the countries.

Why continue to feed lies?

1. There is no esim for prepaid in Japan.
2. You need legal residency to get post paid plan in Japan and 12 months contract.
3. Don’t give me airalo bs either. It’s not only super expensive it also doesn’t give you a local number.

Until esim is supported in all countries and pre-paid. US iphone is a brick.

Heck you can’t even enter Taiwan because of esim only.

 

[Stuey3D]

A huge issue with being esim only is a scenario that I’ve encountered recently.

My iPhone 12 Pro Max had a cracked screen due to a swollen battery so i reset the phone and powered it off for safety, but because I had a physical sim I was able to stick that in a spare SE that I had in a drawer to remain contactable.

Luckily a couple of hours later I had a brand new iPhone 12 Pro Max via Apple Care+ and I was back up and running.

Thing is if you didn’t live near an Apple Store and had to mail the device in how do you stay contactable in the meantime? Or in my case I had to drive down the motorway to the Apple Store, if I hadn’t have had the SE with my SIM card in it what would’ve happened if I broke down and needed to call my recovery company I couldn’t have done it.

Esim is a great idea but until you can switch it between devices as easily as a physical sim it’s going to cause problems when a hardware issue with your iPhone arises.

 

[Apleeseed84]

And it will still sell millions as expected.

 

[CVUSA]

Many carriers inside the US don't support it either (or don't support it on certain plans).

I m on esim with att prepaid plans for $32 a month.

 

[Krispykrme]

The eSIM debate is honestly a non issue. Everyone is making it so much more complicated than it actually is. There are apps that provide eSIM prepaid cards; unlike what people have said here they are relatively cheap. It really is for the most part a non issue. Type eSIM into the apple store.

You are so wrong on this.

1. Those esim app are for data only with no voice. Good luck trying to use DiDi, grab, and Uber without local number.

2. They aren’t cheap. Airalo Asian plan for 30 days is $100. How is that cheap?

3. Good luck trying to get esim in Japan for traveler. That is right- you can’t get it to work.

 

[Krispykrme]

The idea is this.

Apple forcibly removing the SIM slot will force carriers to move their butt and provide eSIM support. Even if they don't, the idea is that virtual operators providing eSIM will be the market disruptor for travelers. With most people are used to make calls/sending messages via IP-based services like Whatsapp, the need for actual local phone number is less and less.

Of course, us being in the transition period, is the painful period. I even remembered the transition to nano SIM, and back then, no carriers in my country even sell nano SIM. They're all still micro SIM, and I have to cut the SIM manually.

Again why as a consumer I should suffer because of dumb ass decision like this.

No you can’t do VoIP for grab and DiDi

 

[bluedesert]

Perhaps this reality would push/motivate all carriers to adopt/offer eSIMs

Why do people keep saying this? The US is the only country where they've removed the SIM card tray and Apple knows that trying to do the same in places like the EU would never fly. You also have countries where the majority use non-Apple devices. So there really isn't an incentive for the carriers in many places around the world to either improve or support eSIM when they can just direct people to use one of the few apps that will most likely be overpriced and limited on options.

Apple doesn't seem to understand how international travel works outside of developed tourist destinations. People criticized the removal of the headphone jack but removing the SIM tray takes the cake for being their dumbest move on the iPhone in a long time.

 

[Krispykrme]

I’m not surprised that Singapore figured it out. They’re pretty forward thinking. There are still a lot of countries who aren’t providing esim support for their pay as you go customers. Like in the UK. India is a gigantic pain because of terrorism related laws and I’ve gotten mixed messages on whether foreigners can get e-sim accounts with Airtel and Jio.

M1 is un-usable. Connection is horrible.

 

[maerz001]

As Long as I can walk up to a kiosk, pay cash and get a eSim activated, while playing tourist I’m fine with that. I shouldn’t have to give a credit card and a drivers license/other personal identification material, I just buy a eSim for a week.

Cos of „anti terror“ rules this is not possible anymore for at least 10 years in the EU. They only sell sim when u give your ID

 

[Le0M]

Apple should offer both types, not only in the USA, but worldwide.

 

[mudguts]

Mann said he would be thrilled to toss out his collection of physical SIM cards, but said he has been unable to figure out how to sign up for an eSIM line in East Africa, where he plans to travel to next summer.

Seriously?

Okay, my wife is in Kenya until the end of the year when she moves to Australia, but I did a google search and found that Safaricom (a phone company in Kenya) offers eSIMS.

So much for not knowing how to sign up for an eSIM.

 

[alexandr]

I love how they are advertising dual esim, which already existed in the 13 alongside the physical sim tray, as if it's a benefit... Meh.. I'm a bit concerned about switching my overseas sim over to esim, I've read of some peoples failed attempts, which result in you having to go to the carriers salon, which you can't do until you go to that country. W/e I'll live

 

[actripxl]

I'm from Nicaragua and I travel there frequently and the carriers there are nowhere near close to doing esim. Nicaragua got LTE in 2015...

I'm not happy about e-sim since I travel a lot to Europe, but for Central and South America I am on AT&T's Elite (Premium now) and no charge when roaming there.

 

[SebCohen]

We all know the benefits to eSIM, the issue is not there. The issue is that many carriers outside (and even inside) the US still doesn't support it to this day.

Now they’ll have to, fast. Everybody wins. And we’ll get better prices for data because it will be so much easier and faster to change carrier. The physical card is a barrier to change.

 

[LV426]

It’s very easy to activate eSim with T-Mobile on their website.

Presumably now you have iOS 16 you can simply go to Settings | Mobile Data | Convert to esim, without bothering the T-Mobile website.

 

[haruhiko]

"And people in China / Hong Kong cannot have these benefits, they are stuck with physical SIM cards and dual SIM trays!! LOL"

/s

 

[ian87w]

Again why as a consumer I should suffer because of dumb ass decision like this.

No you can’t do VoIP for grab and DiDi

You don't have to suffer, unless it's your own choice. Literally the only eSIM only iPhones are the US iPhone 14 series. The rest of the iPhone lineup and non-US iPhone 14 still sport the SIM tray as usual. If you specifically bought the US iPhone 14 while knowing you would be inconvenienced by the lack of SIM slot, that's on you.

 

[Paddle1]

All these da people who fear change. First it was the headphone jack and now this nonsense.

Apple always errs on the side of removing old tech. The downside is clear, the upside is that by removing old tech, you help push the industry away from it.

Those carriers will want the business of iPhone customers coming into their country. They will upgrade their systems. Only thing that sucks is the transition period. Sometimes you have to rip the bandaid off and it hurts, but it will probably only hurt for a year or two. If this is that much of an issue, buy an iPhone 7 for cheap and use it in East Africa or wherever for a year or two until the straggling carriers get on board. The cost of an iPhone 7 compared to international travel right now is nothing.

Apple has done this before, with headphone jacks, optical drives, 30-pin connectors, Flash, floppy drives, etc. They were right every time, and every time people were absolutely pissed. And they will eventually be right about this too, and everyone will laugh about how cute and quaint it seems to carry around a series of tiny cards to gently place into a wee little tray that slides into your phone to connect to a network. I'm glad they're killing off SIM cards forever. Apple has the market share to get it done. They've waited long enough having eSIM with trays for 5 years. This one deserves a big fat FINALLY.

This is not the same as a headphone jack, you could just use a dongle or Bluetooth instead. There's no foolproof workaround for your carrier/country/destination not supporting eSIM. In regions where Apple's marketshare is smaller the "motivation" of removing the slot just isn't there the same way. Laws will literally have to be changed in order to make this a worldwide thing.