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Apple Removes SIM Card Tray on All iPhone 14 Models in U.S.
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This was one of the many gripes with Verizon back in the day. I was so happy to go with a SIM phone when I got an iPhone on AT&T. Now, going backward where I can't just swap a SIM isn't going to work. I'm getting an iPhone 13 but am not sure what after that.
It sure smells like mafia there. Apple helping the carriers increase their profits. Who else will benefit from Apple’s move other than the carriers, whose customers owning an iphone 14 are being forced, at least for now, to pay for roaming if they want to use it while traveling overseas?
Out of the close to 700 posts in this thread you are the only person who brought up this very real scenario. It’s not a rare case either. If your phone is somehow damaged to where the touchscreen is unresponsive/ off or your battery fails how are you going to, for example, access your online banking with two-factor authentication enabled? If your 2FA is through SMS or an authenticator app then it’s quite the hassle. You will either need a spare eSIM compatible phone and then contact your carrier or look for a physical sim phone laying around and head over to your carrier to get a physical SIM card.
You raise a good point but guess what? That move by Apple switching to eSim will make everyone including Google, Samsung and others to eventually do the same. While your concerns are real I can't help but think carriers will be forced to streamline and overcome most obstacles. As for Apple, I read earlier that they will use Bluetooth as an emergency backup to download or scan an eSim QR Code.
You raise a good point but guess what? That move by Apple switching to eSim will make everyone including Google, Samsung and others to eventually do the same. While your concerns are real I can't help but think carriers will be forced to streamline and overcome most obstacles. As for Apple, I read earlier that they will use Bluetooth as an emergency backup to download or scan an eSim QR Code.
That still does not solve the issue.
I can transfer between devices fairly easily today. All this does is streamline a bit between iPhones.
Some Androids may however most will not. Most of the world isn’t ready for a pure eSIM device.
You raise a good point but guess what? That move by Apple switching to eSim will make everyone including Google, Samsung and others to eventually do the same. While your concerns are real I can't help but think carriers will be forced to streamline and overcome most obstacles. As for Apple, I read earlier that they will use Bluetooth as an emergency backup to download or scan an eSim QR Code.
The Bluetooth transfer method still assumes that the phone you are transferring the eSIM from has a working and responsive screen. So you will still be without a phone number until you repair the phone, purchase/use a different eSIM phone or get a physical sim from the carrier.
Just finished reading through some articles on the 14 and eSIM. Amazing how they all mention how the big US carriers can and will work with it. They mention nothing else. More like marketing pieces.
Yeah. That's the boring but real answer. It will help the environment though. All those little sim cards no longer required.
Not sure your information is correct. Foreign PR absolutely have zero issues with this if I'm understanding you correctly.
Wow! Your cousin is well meaning, but that's crazy.
I think with apps like iMessage and Signal (cross platform) there are zero reason to have a local number if you're only contacting family and friends when you travel. If you need to make calls for business or call businesses etc, that's a little different and will need to have a local number. But I think most prepaid sims come with a phone number and certain amount of data anyway and they really aren't that expensive.
iMessage and Signal (and FB Messenger which is what my friends and family use) only works if everyone has always on data.
Like I mentioned, I have cousins who turn off data on their phones so text is still needed.
Also, I think some services like Grab (similar to Uber) require a local cellphone number.
Prepaid SIMs all have phone numbers (even data only ones). I think that’s part of the GSM standard.
In PH prepaid, you just load a Philippine Peso amount and your usage gets deducted from that load. The regular rates are a bit pricey. However, you can sign up for promos that are a lot cheaper (e.g. 10GB + unlimited text + unlimited in-network calls for ~$2).
Which begs the question of why is eSim even worthy of so much effort and headache.
It’s the progression of the tech, from the normal SIM, mini, micro, nano. There’s even a newer tech, iSIM, where it is integrated into the SoC.
Can’t buy it since I a travel a lot. Sims from many countries like UAE, India, where prepaid isn’t necessarily supported.
i always switch mid flight when the phones are off, so I land with the correct sim.
to activate an e-sim a valid internet connection is required correct? That’s another bloody headache. If my phone dies in a bad area, I can’t pop out the sim to another phone with battery to make a call in areas with limited data.
its a DUAL sim phone, why can’t they have kept the physical slot as is now? Ridiculous.
i always switch mid flight when the phones are off, so I land with the correct sim.
to activate an e-sim a valid internet connection is required correct? That’s another bloody headache. If my phone dies in a bad area, I can’t pop out the sim to another phone with battery to make a call in areas with limited data.
its a DUAL sim phone, why can’t they have kept the physical slot as is now? Ridiculous.
Yes it does require internet connection to switch since it requires connection to the carriers backend system to register the esim to your account.
This is why I am saying it’s totally anti consumer as you NEED the carriers interaction to move between phones; whereas a physical sim you don’t. This is irrefutable yet the shills still try to frame esim as something revolutionary. It’s not.
I thought Google Fi and Mint Mobile support eSIM now. Maybe those carriers just don’t officially support iPhone 14 yet. I don’t see why the process would be any different than installing the eSIM on an iPhone 13.
I keep my Google Fi account paused and just unpause when I’m about to make a brief stop somewhere when traveling. If I really can’t setup my account on the iPhone 14, I will definitely be buying a Canadian model.
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Never supported on iPhone with google fi. Yes for pixel etc.
I have Verizon prepaid which also doesn’t have ESim.
Will buy the iPhone when I travel out of the US, need the SIM card.
iPhone eSIM is supported on Google Fi now. I got a message asking me if I wanted to switch to eSIM on my iPhone 12 mini a while back.
Still no 5G support though.
I know that Google Fi can convert you to eSIM, but the instructions say to insert the physical SIM. I wonder if there’s an alternative method that lets you skip that step. Or you can try to convert to eSIM using an older iPhone and then transfer the eSIM to an iPhone 14.
Yah, but pretty much every place has an apple store? Or literally any electronics store? Y'all acting you wouldn't be showing up to the country with an already operational previous gen iPhone in this scenario.
Someone has to push/pull things into the market. Apple is often the one to do things, but sometimes it happens in reverse too with apple most likely needing to use USB C in the future. E-sim adoption needs a kick in the pants...maybe this is the one to do it
This may be a dumb question, but since the 14 will only do e-sim in the US, what if you have a backup phone in case your 14 breaks or has issues that you have to send it in, exactly how would you get the old phone to work again since there is no sim card in the 14 to transfer into the older phone?
Here, I would encourage to address the above question to Tim. Or at least while at an Apple store ask one of the unsuspecting salesperson. For added entertainment you can make up some non-existant country to which you are just about to travel to.
In the case of Mint Mobile they would send me a physical sim card. What they did tell me is that every time a switch is made, the physical sim card is deactivated because it matches the eSim. So I would need to request a new sim card each time I do an eSim phone swap.