Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
One less thing to worry about. Most people don’t need to hot swap sim cards anyway. I haven’t even opened my sim tray in years now, since the day I bought my phone.
Some people like to take advantage of “new customers only!” prices and switch from carrier to carrier. Staying with a company out of “loyalty” is boomer nonsense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KeithBN
I'm not familiar with any privacy issues. Both physical and eSIM identify the phone as a subscriber to a particular cellular carrier. I'm not aware of any additional information contained in an eSIM that isn't present in a physical SIM.

I suppose loss of privacy could come into play because the registration of an eSIM will always involve the carrier in some way, with the registration process presumably requiring identification of the user. In the case of pre-paid physical SIMs purchased off a display in a shop (where the carrier never knows the identity of the user), this could eliminate user anonymity.

I'm also not aware of how/why Apple could demand a cut of carrier revenue simply for the use of eSIM. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a one-time fee - eSIM can save carriers a fair amount of money, so a "convenience fee" from Apple for accessing eSIM seem quite plausible. But "cut of eSIM carrier revenue" suggests an ongoing percentage of service revenue. Considering the one-time benefit of eSIM and the ease of opting out of using eSIM at all, I don't see carriers agreeing to pay Apple any kind of ongoing percentage for this capability.

With eSIM, consumers lose the option of remaining anonymous. There is no way to activate a service without providing personal info and payment info. With conventional SIM, you can purchase a SIM, activate it, and top it off using cash or vouchers purchased from a third-party.

Apple's eSIM implementation is proprietary, which is why you don't see global adoption three years after the launch of iPhone XS. Low-cost carriers can't afford to pay Apple an ongoing percentage. As a result, you'll notice low-cost carriers are unwilling to adopt eSIM. Under normal circumstances, prepaid carriers would be the first ones to push for eSIM because their customers are less loyal and far more willing to move.

It's a matter of bargaining power, if carriers want easy access to the hundreds of millions of eSIM-enabled iPhones, they have no choice but to pay Apple. When Apple was small, carriers had all the power, but now the tables have turned.
 
I'm not so sure about only having a Digital SIM. Does the user have anyway of changing out a digital SIM, or is it in the full control of the cellphone service carrier? Granted I don't claim to fully understand Digital SIM, and what benefits it might have.

Maybe it is just my generally poor experience with AT&T service online and in store ?
This. Leave to ATT and Verizon to mess up things as they for sure will.
 
In fact, my carrier doesn't even have eSIM. I don't see how this would be viable unless they want to force people to not use their new phones.
Removing feature is an upgrade these days.
A moment silence please for the seven Macrumors members who will complain about being unable to hot-swap SIMs.
and a moment of silence for those who thinks their opinion is the only valid one
 
This could be a nudge to telcos that don’t support esim (or have bad support) - get your house in order or face an exodus of iPhone owners in 2 years to rival networks.
 
eSIM is within control of the new carrier - a new eSIM can over-write an existing eSIM from another carrier (actually, the iPhone can store multiple eSIM data sets - only one of which can be loaded at a time). So, if I read your comment correctly... eSIM cannot be used by a carrier to prevent a user from switching to another carrier.
I was trying to get my head around why the article speaks of just two eSIMs. Surely we all have enough storage for thousands? But if I read you right, it is just a matter of how many concurrently active eSIMs.

If you can choose any two from <as many as you have available>, and deactivate on one device, activate on another easily and quickly, I'd be happy.

Especially if iPads also get eSIMs. I'd love to be able to swap my sole SIM from iPhone to iPad, and back, whenever I want. And buy or borrow eSIMs as needed. (There are some places round my part of the world where it would be convenient to borrow partner's eSIM for a few hours. Or let her use my iPad with her eSIM.)

But let it be universal and let the eSIMs be transferred across devices from all manufacturers, all operating systems.
 
eSIMs can be wiped out unexpectedly. This happened to me while traveling in Italy. I was having network issues, so the "helpful" Vodaphone staff troubleshooted their physical SIM by first wiping out my US eSIM. eSIMs are useful for theft protection, but I have greater control with a physical SIM, which is what I have gone back to using.
 
Not all of them will have the PHYSICAL Sim card removed. Some markets do not offer eSim, especially the non-Pro and the markets it is focused on. Logic wise it will be removed from the iPhone, no need to be a leaker to predict this. They made the step with iPhone 13 implementing 2 eSim possibilities.
 
I can certainly see this happening in the future. I am not sure about other countries, but most (if not all) major carriers already support eSIM in the US. Perhaps if rumors continue to circulate, it will put fire under the smaller and foreign carriers to adopt to this. eSIM is a way of the future, but the timing has to be right on Apple's end. We cannot have a repeat of eliminating all USB-A ports and switching to USB-C exclusively.

To counter though, perhaps that drives for competitors to change and go with the current technology.

I'm a supporter 100%, if the timing is right.
 
Certainly don't have use for such often but when traveling it's always convenient to just grab a SIM from the local store and have phone access. Most don't offer an eSIM option currently.

I'm generally down for getting rid of stuff that most don't use often but this is one I do use on occasion.
 
Am I missing something here? The iPhone 13/Pro does have support for two eSIM.
That's correct. For instance, you can have both your work number and your personal number active on the same device. Or you can set a split. For instance, phone calls would go through one provider, while data goes through another.
 

Don’t all major carriers support eSIM in Canada? Perhaps the MVNOs don’t, but I’m sure that’s going to change real quick.

Lack of physical SIM card? Portless, Lightning or USB-C? Hole-Punch or notch? These are just cosmetic details to distract the audience.

I just want what really matters: an iPhone with M2X processor, 64GB of RAM, both iOS and macOS to choose from, 4K resolution ouput, so I can also use it as a Mac... OK, I just asked too much... Maybe just M1 with 16GB of RAM?

Anyone who’s had to run a dual boot configuration would tell you of how inconvenient this would be, we’re not going to see 64 GB of RAM on an iPhone anytime soon. Just no need for it with what we currently do on our phones.
 
Last edited:
eSIMs can be wiped out unexpectedly. This happened to me while traveling in Italy. I was having network issues, so the "helpful" Vodaphone staff troubleshooted their physical SIM by first wiping out my US eSIM. eSIMs are useful for theft protection, but I have greater control with a physical SIM, which is what I have gone back to using.
That’s definitely one scenario where having a physical SIM card for your US account would’ve been better. I was thinking about removing my physical SIM card and activating my eSIM before I go to Europe next year in case I want to use a SIM card from a European carrier. Thanks for the warning.
 
About time. Having physical SIM cards seem to be a relic of the past. Digital eSIMs appear the way to go.
Only when all global carriers get onboard with eSIMs. At the moment, that’s not the case. Unless Apple is okay with leaving some carriers and their subscribers behind when it comes to purchasing the first iPhone that does away with physical SIM cards.
 
Not for those of us who travel internationally with any frequency.
Yeah, at the moment for many carriers located in far-flung and some not so far-flung destinations, eSIMs are still way off. Maybe in 5-10 years it will be a different story, but in 2023 the situation probably won’t be much different than today.
 
  • Like
Reactions: incoherent_1
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.