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Apple Removes SIM Card Tray on All iPhone 14 Models in U.S.

lartola said:
I see it more as a warning from Apple: this year it was just the US iphone that was eSIM only, next year it will be worldwide. And carriers understood it and have started reacting: now they’re about to start supporting eSIM in egypt after years of refusing. And Mexico’s largest carrier Telcel, which has refused to activate any iphone eSIMs for 4 years, is about to officially announce that they will start activating them on sep 30th when iphone 14 goes out for sale in Mexico. In fact, they’ve already activated a few US iphone 14’s, as a video on twitter has showed. And just like those two examples, there are probably lots pf others. It is making carriers who persistently refused to use eSIM relent.
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Apple can warn me about the local weather or burger prices in Oakland. The reality of a migration to e-sims will be solely dictated by the users. If a user wants a SIM card and Apple does not provide it, this user will purchase a device with that provision. Unless of course the world stops making physical sims, but here I remain rather skeptical about this idea any time soon..
 
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lartola said:
That’s already happening and several people have complained about it in this forum.

The other part of the explanation that I forgot to mention is that Apple seems to believe that international travelers are a small minority of the US user base not worth caring about. Thus, under that assumption the vast majority of the US users would be unaffected by the lack of a SIM tray. And it seems to be a safe assumption: indeed the vast majority of americans don’t travel outside their country. Selling the iphones without a SIM tray would harm a lot more users, and hurt sales much more, in other regions of the world than it does in the US.

Also, there may have been some kind of agreement between Apple and the US Carriers because it actually benefits them: if international travelers can no longer buy a local prepaid SIM wherever they go, at least for now they’ll have no choice but to use roaming.
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If anything it’s the opposite. Apple is in a position in the US to dictate to the carriers. They have 50% market share here. Carriers don’t like eSIM because it makes it easier to switch carriers.

T-Mobile includes 5GB of monthly 5G roaming in over 200 countries in its standard unlimited plans. It’s forcing the other carriers to become more competitive.
 
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Konrad said:
Sure will. By then Apple will release all phones with a sim tray after this miserable embarrassment. You see, the world is a much bigger place than your mall in your suburbs.
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I'd be willing to bet I travel FAR more internationally than you ever will... please educate me on international data and SIM cards... I'll wait.
 
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iGeneo said:
Why on earth would you want a new voice number when traveling? Get a data sim and use WhatsApp (or WeChat if China)
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Why? Because my friends Mustafa‘s wife doesn’t use the stupid e-sim and wants to now if I want couscous with lamb for dinner. She lives 20km from the airport in a little village in Jordan. Duh!
 
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lartola said:
Or it could be that Apple has an agreement with the US Carriers. The carriers happen to be the ones that benefit the most from this move, at least for now, since international travelers who can no longer buy local prepaid service where they go, due to eSIM not being available or easy to get, will be forced to use international roaming with their US carrier.
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That’s more like it. Or, alternatively, someone was just not thinking at Apple.
 
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iGeneo said:
The reality is that the SIM card will be dead in a couple of years. The goo thing, there are other phones (for now) that will allow a physical SIM.

This thread is filled with users complaining about why it "will not work"with fringe use cases.

eSim is here to stay, whether you can work with it or not will be your problem. Thinking Apple has some nefarious "side deal" with carriers to somehow profit from this is downright silly./
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What is a "fringe use case" to you is an every day issue for someone else.

Inability to move your service from one phone to another via the simple act of moving a card from one phone to another, which takes all of 30 seconds or less, is a HUGE benefit to a lot of people.

Hell, it took me 11 days to get my Verizon service moved from a SIM card to an eSIM, so I could use it with my new phone. It involves multiple visits to Verizon offices and emails. Physical SIM swap? Seconds.

Then of course suppose you, like me, kill your phone. Damaged. Destroyed. Doesn't freaking work.....I could take the physical card out of it and move it to ANY phone I could quickly get (and oh, by the way, I have an old iPhone just for this purpose). The eSIM? Yeah...didn't even bother trying to deal with that line.

But no...maybe you're right...because it didn't happen to you, it just doesn't matter.
 
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monstermash said:
What is a "fringe use case" to you is an every day issue for someone else.

Inability to move your service from one phone to another via the simple act of moving a card from one phone to another, which takes all of 30 seconds or less, is a HUGE benefit to a lot of people.

Hell, it took me 11 days to get my Verizon service moved from a SIM card to an eSIM, so I could use it with my new phone. It involves multiple visits to Verizon offices and emails. Physical SIM swap? Seconds.

Then of course suppose you, like me, kill your phone. Damaged. Destroyed. Doesn't freaking work.....I could take the physical card out of it and move it to ANY phone I could quickly get. The eSIM? Yeah...didn't even bother trying to deal with that line.

But no...maybe you're right...because it didn't happen to you, it just doesn't matter.
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You are absolutely correct. The problem is elsewhere. Some are simply incapable of grasping it.
 
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Or buy any non US iPhone 14 Model with a sim. People here clearly DONT travel who are making a fuss about it not being a big deal.
China bans google, that’s known. But countries in the Middle East, like UAE have 0 VOIP services, since FaceTime is banned, google voice doesn’t work, as are WhatsApp, signal etc, if you have just a foreign data sim None of these servicew work. VPNs aren’t reliable.

I have a SIM card pack for countries in the middle east and Asia, and I switch it mid flight, prior to landing. I use my US number as an esim and put in the physical sim for the local country I’m traveling to.
That was the correct solution.

NOT removing the slot altogether.
 
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iGeneo said:
Says apple three weeks ago... bookmark this thread, 12-18 months from now it will be all over worldwide
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If they were dead according to Apple, no new iPhone would have a SIM tray. I seriously doubt it will be worldwide next year either. Not unless Apple wants a smaller market share anyway. I can just see the ads now about how easy it is to switch the SIM on a broken phone to one that works -- compared to an iPhone that's just plain dead.
 
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Has anyone in the thread told us what the benefit of eSIM even is supposed to be? Is it just about carriers/manufacturers having more control (which is not a benefit to us)? Someone said Apple just wanting to close up all seams on the phone (like removing the headphone jack, and likely to come the power connector). But making the phone even more dust/waterproof doesn't seem like anything any users are asking for.
 
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pdoherty said:
Has anyone in the thread told us what the benefit of eSIM even is supposed to be? Is it just about carriers/manufacturers having more control (which is not a benefit to us)? Someone said Apple just wanting to close up all seams on the phone (like removing the headphone jack, and likely to come the power connector). But making the phone even more dust/waterproof doesn't seem like anything any users are asking for.
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Carries absolutely no benefit to me. I don't see anything an eSIM can do that actually want or need, that I don't get from a physical SIM. It's nothing but drawbacks as I am concerned.
 
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pdoherty said:
Has anyone in the thread told us what the benefit of eSIM even is supposed to be? Is it just about carriers/manufacturers having more control (which is not a benefit to us)? Someone said Apple just wanting to close up all seams on the phone (like removing the headphone jack, and likely to come the power connector). But making the phone even more dust/waterproof doesn't seem like anything any users are asking for.
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I would strongly bet on the first part. Gullible American general public with still a pretty good discretionary income, gaping in craze at the new “exciting” colors, mostly untraveled, not just willing to pay stupid money for the latest gadget but also enthusiastically lining up for hours in view of not having anything better in a largely culturally eventless society. An ideal setting for both Apple and the carriers to take a shot at. Only in the US.
 
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pdoherty said:
Has anyone in the thread told us what the benefit of eSIM even is supposed to be? Is it just about carriers/manufacturers having more control (which is not a benefit to us)? Someone said Apple just wanting to close up all seams on the phone (like removing the headphone jack, and likely to come the power connector). But making the phone even more dust/waterproof doesn't seem like anything any users are asking for.
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One advantage is a thief can’t do a SIM card swap to another phone and get access to your accounts via sms 2fa codes.
 
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I7guy said:
One advantage is a thief can’t do a SIM card swap to another phone and get access to your accounts via sms 2fa codes.
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You sure about that? It's easier to steal bit values than physical cards. Say some malware is on your phone that can copy your ESIM and transmit it to someone else...
 
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