That's nothing, next year models of iPads won't come with Wi-Fi
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Apple SIM No Longer Available for Activating New Cellular Data Plans on iPads
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That may only save them on the modem hardware. The patent licenses come due regardless of who makes the modem. Apple's two options on that front are to wait for those patents to expire while simultaneously building their own patent portfolio (which they are working on) to help offset and negotiate better licenses through cross-licensing deals. This is why Apple has wised-up and gotten more involved with 6G tech / industry planning.
This is the one area where Apple not being a traditional phone manufacturer has hurt them. They just didn't have the history in the industry to build a defensive patent portfolio around essential phone tech like modems.
I know, but all currently sold cellular iPads still support physical SIM cards.
Apple may remove the physical SIM slot on the new iPads launching this month, like they’ve done with iPhone 14 and 14 Pro in the US.
I don’t get the reason to bash Apple, especially in an Apple forum since I have used Android and cannot stand it at all, have used Microsoft Windows and still do very seldom though, and it’s very painful to have to use and obviously I have a lot invested in the Apple ecosystem and find iPadOS and macOS and iphoneos to be the best there is.
Yeah, I remember having to go to the ATT Store to get a real SIM for my 10.5" iPad Pro since the "eSIM" didn't work.
if iPadOS is the best there is, Android must be dire, but not from what I know others use…
Never heard of this before. This is not really needed now that Apple is pushing eSIM going forward.
Android has pretty much caught up with iOS and iPadOS. They pretty much do the same things in the same way except for Android's launcher is more configurable. I don't have any problem with either OS.
Lol pretty sure these were free. Best to know what you’re talking about before commenting.
Also it was released 8 years ago. Not 4.
I remember buying one for $5 (to replace an Apple SIM that got locked to AT&T).
And yes, they were still selling this 4 years ago (2018). Iirc, we actually bought that replacement physical Apple SIM in 2019 before the eSIM-based iPad 7th gen was released.
You confused the two technologies, eSIM and Apple SIM. Your iPad does not support eSIM and never will. If you wanted to use Apple SIM you could, but only some carriers supported Apple SIM. The main reason to use Apple SIM was to be able to manage activation through Settings instead of activating a SIM in a store.
No, I read and understand what it is. I would have liked to have moved my tablet line over to the embedded Apple SIM, but now it appears even that is no longer possible.
Right, but you said “convert to eSIM”, which cannot be done. It won’t support eSIM.
As long as they retain the SIM tray who cares about using Apple SIM?
Welcome to America's tightening on crypto. This is so that when the gov/banks introduce their own CBDC, they can easily track and control you. But don't worry, this will come to the rest of the world as it's already the way in China.
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Same here. I had to look it up. I find it confusing that eSIM is not the same as embedded Apple SIM.
Maybe some people don’t want to pay extra money for something they don’t want
Cellular 529
Non Cellular 419
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Yeah, all those people who carry and use smartphones are super concerned about being tracked. LOL