Why does Apple always try to sell removing things as a feature? Especially for people with multiple phones the option to simply take the SIM card out of one phone and put it into another phone is very convenient. And it will never cost a fee.
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Apple Reportedly Plans to Remove iPhone's SIM Card Tray in More Countries Next Year
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Radeon85
macrumors 68000
JPack
macrumors P6
The more control Apple has over the ecosystem, the more power they have. By removing the SIM slot, Apple can at some point, demand carriers fork over 30% of their revenue, just like the Apple Store. The SIM is a critical gatekeeping feature.
Apple$
macrumors 6502a
Well, this means this iPhone 15 I have will be the last iPhone I have. (Live in Canada and I know Canada will be one of the next countries they'll pull this step to lock you in with Apple.) Given I switch back and forth between Android and iPhone. Google Pixel will be my next phone.
timborama
Suspended
and vise-versa. 😜
This would kill a lot of sales in the UK, or at least prompt alot of network switching, no doubt to more expensive deals just to use a new phone. Glad I went for 16 pro now, with it's sim slot.
Emily4
macrumors newbie
You will have the same amount of choices with eSIM. It’s an open standard.
This is like getting angry that a store only accepts mobile payments instead of physical cards
00sjsl
macrumors regular
I suspect there is a reason that low cost providers lack support for eSIMs. It won't be laziness, ISPs would love to save money by not shipping physical SIMs. I wonder what the commercial relationship is between ISPs and Apple wrt eSIMs. It would not surprise me if ISPs had to pay Apple some sort of fee to support eSIMS.
It super simply to change an eSIM to another device, there is no reason to keep physical SIM slots.
Only the slow and weak can't figure it out and complain.
Only the slow and weak can't figure it out and complain.
00sjsl
macrumors regular
russell_314
Suspended
Apple is usually ahead of the competition when it comes to making these changes. Some might say they do it too early but it pushes the industry to update.
I can think of a few examples where people were upset but now the rest of the industry has caught up. Headphone jack on the iPhone, CD and floppy drives on the Mac.
I also very much loved the fact that the SIM can store a certain number of phone numbers. You put your SIM into any phone (Android, iOS or even a $20 dumb phone) and your contacts are all there.
JPack
macrumors P6
No one is saying it can’t be easy. It’s about control. Some carriers ask for $$ to swap eSIMs to another device. You need to ask for their permission first. This is basically like voluntary DRM.
Niot that I am planning to buy an Iphone at the moment, mainly due to price, if I ever did decide then yes, not having a sim tray would certainly put me off. As you said, in the U.K, so many virtual networks don't support Esims.
I did not think anyone used a SIM these days to store phone numbers, apart from maybe those that have non-smart or feature phones.
That is entirely network depemdant. When I was on vodafone UK, if I deleted an esim they would email a new one after a few minutes. O2, yu can reinstall it, but you can't switch from Android to iOS etc without contacting them and waiting up to 24 hours.
Also in the UK not all networks offer esims
There's 2 good reasons to keep sim slots.
PsykX
macrumors 68040
I'm pretty surprised that my iPhone 16 Pro still has a physical SIM card.
It's time to get rid of these, bury this old tech in the past.
It's time to get rid of these, bury this old tech in the past.
Currently running 2 esims in my 16 Pro Max in Australia. And transferring from my 15 Pro Max on launch day was easy. However if they are removing to put in a bigger battery or something it would make sense. But if removing it just to remove it. They should wait.
victorvictoria
Suspended
Very happy about this development. Apple has often driven acceptance of new technologies, like moving from 5.25" floppies to 3.5", and adopting USB when the iMac was introduced. Naysayers abounded, but not long after, everyone had adopted them.
Same thing with the physical SIM. Apple abandoning it will force phone companies everywhere to adopt the eSIM as a default standard, and it will be easier to use no matter where you are in the world. None of the reliable phone companies is going to forgo a market the size the Apple clientele.
Same thing with the physical SIM. Apple abandoning it will force phone companies everywhere to adopt the eSIM as a default standard, and it will be easier to use no matter where you are in the world. None of the reliable phone companies is going to forgo a market the size the Apple clientele.
jlc1978
macrumors 604
Never been an issue internationally for me, except to convince someone it has no SIM card.
The curse of eSIM on track to take over the world
