Sketchy Rumor Claims iPhone 15 Pro Won't Have Physical SIM Card Slot

[Wanted797]

Doubt it. With the headphone jack, it works because Apple also provided the solution (Airpods). Consumers are not left hanging. it's all within Apple's own ecosystem.

With eSIM, Apple is not the carrier. Consumers are at the hand of carriers, which from many have stated everywhere, are not that great in terms of customer service/experience. Besides, eSIM is not new. Look at the Apple Watch cellular, iPhones since the iPhone Xs/XR, Samsung Foldables, Samsung flagships, etc. Yet most carriers are not budging.

And let's say Apple did it with the iPhone 15. Then what? Majority of carriers are not interested in eSIM. And there's China. Do you really think Apple is willing to risk consumers in those markets ending up not buying iPhones?

We will see more carriers deploying 5G sooner than carriers supporting eSIM.

I like the idea of eSIM, and I wish it's more common than what it is now. But unfortunately the telcos think otherwise.

Seems like a game of chicken.

If Apple decides to do it do you think the carrier is going to risk losing new Apple customers?

 

[bn-7bc]

how do i add a local phone number when I travel?

1:go to local store when you arive at dest
2: by whatever payo plan you want (or can get due to kack of lical address of revidemce etc)
3: pay and scan the qr code they display in yore phones " add e-sim" menu ( whatever they call it)
4: trigger your phones fungtion to select active e-sim for voice/data
5 use the new e-sim untill you leave the country and then delete it

 

[bn-7bc]

For the UK I can't see much support for low cost service providers with eSIMs.

Well I suspect that wehen pjhones that can operate normally without a physical sim become prevalent even the cheap operators will jump on it. think of it no sim cards to stock at stores, and/or no mail out to new cousyumres (where a local pos is un available) one less suply chain , and associated costs to maintain (well or at least to be maintained at a level far below current)

 

[bn-7bc]

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.

depends on country I suppose here in Norway you have to suplly a name and adresse of recidence to get a sim activated anyway no mater what.

 

[Davelfc]

If apple move to esim only then any company that uses physical sims can continue, or they can themselves move to esim. You can be sure Samsung will follow the soon after, as they did with almost every other move Apple made first.

Adding an esim is as simple as scanning a QR code or literally minutes on the EE app to download the esim to my phone and activate. I believe you can have up to 10 esims loaded but at the moment only one active at a time.

I think there’s a massive benefit. If you travel a lot you can grab your sim online and have it stored on your phone and switch in seconds.

As I said at the start, don’t worry about your provider not supporting esim. They won’t want to lose a lot of customers to those that will.

 

[bn-7bc]

Yes, in theory it should be so simple. In reality, it can be a very disappointing and frustrating experience, as I had last night.

I have the Verizon app. I couldn't find any way to activate the new phone in the app (I did look because that seemed logical) and certainly none of the three different people I spoke with last night suggested doing anything in the app. There is a place in the Settings app of the iPhone where you can theoretically transfer service from another phone using eSIM but it told me that my carrier (Verizon, the largest in the United States) doesn't support that. Prior to speaking with an actual human being on the phone, the automated system sent me a link via text message to activate a new phone using the IMEI but that didn't work. Then three different humans couldn't get it to transfer either. Their advice was to go into the Verizon store but it was already 9:30pm by that point, so it will need to wait until after Christmas. We activated the service back on the old phone until next week when I'll stop by the store, but what's going to be any different at the store? I have no idea.

I agree with this, I',m a bit clumsy and have vison issues to boot so changing physical sims are a royal PITP, so form a personal standpoint breaking the reliance on physical sims can't come soon enough

 

[bn-7bc]

Simcards only matter in Europe. I haven’t used one In the us in ages

You might want to change Europe to the world outside the US, I've not heard that Asia is dropping som s (physical/e-sims), and that is a rather large market don't you think?

 

[danny842003]

What sparked uptake of Bluetooth headsets were businesses (remember those single side Bluetooth earpiece?), then the regulation for driving with hands free. If you meant popularity of TWS, then what sparked it was Qualcomm making its Bluetooth 5 easily accessible by every OEM.

You probably were hoping the answer to be Apple ditching the headphone jack. Let’s assume that was true as well, that worked because Apple also provided the solution, AirPods.

With eSIM, it’s up to the carriers to provide support for it.
Heck, Apple even specially made iPhones with dual physical SIM slots for China, no eSIM. That shows that Apple is not the one who dictates the market. Unless Apple itself becomes an international wireless carrier, an eSIM only iPhone is suicide.

I never said Apple invented Bluetooth headsets or that they were the first to make such a thing. I think it totally disingenuous to suggest removing the headphone jack didn’t dramatically move the market to where it is today.

They do provide the solution to this problem it’s called an esim.

The idea carriers are just going to ignore iPhones when there’s a perfectly suitable solution isn’t realistic.

 

[bn-7bc]

If apple move to esim only then any company that uses physical sims can continue, or they can themselves move to esim. You can be sure Samsung will follow the soon after, as they did with almost every other move Apple made first.

Adding an esim is as simple as scanning a QR code or literally minutes on the EE app to download the esim to my phone and activate. I believe you can have up to 10 esims loaded but at the moment only one active at a time.

I think there’s a massive benefit. If you travel a lot you can grab your sim online and have it stored on your phone and switch in seconds.

As I said at the start, don’t worry about your provider not supporting esim. They won’t want to lose a lot of customers to those that will.

Exactly I think thiss will be about the same as apple dropping 3.5mm . A lot of complaining on forums for a while , and people transitioning either to BT or 3.5mm with adapter. k if the sim slot disappears it will lock out the laggards amongts the operators for a while but I suspect market forces will sort that out rather quickly

 

[polyphenol]

In the UK, it would be the last desperate chance to get BT Mobile to support eSIM.

Also in the UK, it has finally become illegal to sell phones locked to networks. I hope the law has been written so as to preclude any attempt to lock by eSIM. If not, a change to make it so might not be nearly so difficult as getting this far.

(Not sure of the exact day, but December 2021.)

 

[SurferPup]

I have two eSIM plans in my iPhone 12 Pro. I love how my Nokias have dual nano SIM trays however sometimes eSIM functionality would be a bonus.

 

[bernoulli]

Both my UK and US Carriers support eSIM. I’d happily get rid of the slot as it takes up a relatively large volume of space, that space could go to more battery life or a slightly smaller phone.

I also have no problem downloading eSIMs when I travel. I’ve never removed the SIM card trays for my iPhone 13 Pro or my wife’s iPhone 13 Mini.

True, sim card is so massive that it basically takes half of the internal space.

 

[craiggmelville]

I’m gonna say no on this one.
SIMCards are too prevalent in a lot of the world today, not to mention The people who still used them in the US, and even if this was true, why would it be restricted to the 15 pro? It’s not a pro feature to not have a SIM card slot.

One of the features that they failed to raise in the article is that removing the SIM tray removes a weak point in the frame and increases the space for more battery. One less component is to be added to the circuit board and as you mentioned the eSIM is not supported by every carrier and this means only the Pro sales would be affected. It ensures that the carriers are dragged kicking and screaming into the future. The iPad and Watch were transition devices moving the carriers and the Pro Phone will be the nail in the coffin. Plastic SIM cards are a control for the carriers and serve no purpose that I can think of.

 

[Sandstorm]

Physical SIM is such an outdated concept. It is all just data. For everyone whining about traveling - do you really have such a limited imagination to realise how an all-digital solution could easily replace this e-waste nonsense, including travel? Something you could buy online or at any corner-shop, just no stupid physical card needed.

 

[Sandstorm]

I would have said the same thing, until my eSIM fiasco last month that I touched on above. ?
Plus, while I’m not a 2 line, one phone user, it does seem a necessary config for those that are - tho it is entirely possible I don't understand the full capabilities of eSIM. Maybe we can ditch the physical SIM and eSIM is capable of multiple lines.

Of course eSIM technology can be capable of multiple lines. Regarding your problem - not really an argument, if it is just a rare physical malfunction (could happen to physical SIM as well, arguably more likely, because of moving parts/sealing).

 

[ian87w]

I never said Apple invented Bluetooth headsets or that they were the first to make such a thing. I think it totally disingenuous to suggest removing the headphone jack didn’t dramatically move the market to where it is today.

They do provide the solution to this problem it’s called an esim.

The idea carriers are just going to ignore iPhones when there’s a perfectly suitable solution isn’t realistic.

What Airpods popularized imo are TWS, not necessary use of bluetooth headsets themselves. Regulations requiring hands-free while driving imo is what pushed bluetooth headsets before Apple ditched the headphone jack. But they're the mono-kind, the one-side only. What's popularized by Apple's decision is the idea of stereo capable bluetooth headset (also helped by bluetooth 5).

Back to eSIM, the issue is, unlike Airpods, Apple is not the one providing the actual service.

As for carriers ignoring iPhones (or more likely, Apple), is nothing new. Take Apple Watch cellular. That is still not supported in many countries and carriers. Other basic features like VoLTE and visual voicemail, are not even widely supported.

And did we forget how Russian carriers managed to force Apple to pre-install a local app on Russian iPhones?

If you read my comments, I'm actually pro-eSIM. But I'm also realist. Here in my country, the top 3 carriers don't even support VoLTE on iPhones (they do support VoLTE on Android phones) nor eSIM. Take a neighboring country, Singapore, where Apple has 3 Apple stores, and yet the top 2 carriers don't even support eSIM on iPhones. And then there's China, where even Apple made a specific iPhones with dual physical SIM support instead of eSIM for the region.

 

[The Game 161]

Guess a lot can happen in a few years but dunno about this one

 

[erinsarah]

I hope they keep physical SIMs. I have a US and Czech SIM for my phone and while one can be an eSIM, the other needs to be physical for travel. I have bought SIM cards in dozens of countries from Somaliland and Uganda to Thailand and Tunisia. it needs to remain easy to pop in a physical SIM.

Having an easy non-US SIM lets me continue to use a known phone number when in US-sanctioned countries like Cuba and Iran where AT&T and such don't work.

Speaking of Czech…my daughter did a semester in Prague this year and we encountered an issue…she obviously needed a fully functioning iPhone there, and I was initially figuring she would get a local SIM card when she got there. Except we had just bought her a new 12 in the ATT installment plan, which meant it was locked to ATT. So our only solutions were to get her a “burner” phone which wasn’t really optimal, or pay ATT the extra $100 per month for their international day pass deal. We opted for the latter.

Even if the phone wasn’t locked, I’d be curious to know how this would work with eSIM.

 

[ian87w]

Seems like a game of chicken.

If Apple decides to do it do you think the carrier is going to risk losing new Apple customers?

Well, unlike the US, carriers in many countries like mine are not selling phones. They just sell the service. If your phone doesn't support the carrier, well too bad. In my country, Apple only managed to convince the number 4 carrier to support eSIM and VoLTE (and mostly because it's an LTE-only carrier, so VoLTE is obviously a must). The top 3 couldn't care less on what Apple wants. Heck, even the number 1 carrier was blocking iMessage activations for the longest time.

Samsung tried to woo the carriers in my country for eSIM support since their foldables, like iPhones, use one physical SIM and one eSIM. But they failed. Nobody cared.

Personally, I don't think this rumor is true, unless it's a specific carrier model (eg. the 2019 Moto RAZR that was eSIM only for Verizon). The rest of the world will still be using physical SIM.

 

[Giryan]

Apple stops numbering starting with iPhone 13!

 

[damienbutt]

Not a fan of this idea. I wouldn’t purchase a phone without a physical sim card option personally.

I like that I walk into a garage and buy a PAYG sim for £1 with cash, no details. Also if I travel abroad I can quickly just buy a local carrier PAYG sim, again for cash with no details.

It's a privacy thing for me.

I’m sure all the governments will love this though.

 

[hrMACnstuff]

you will have even less control and you will be happy...

 

[Shirasaki]

Physical SIM is such an outdated concept. It is all just data. For everyone whining about traveling - do you really have such a limited imagination to realise how an all-digital solution could easily replace this e-waste nonsense, including travel? Something you could buy online or at any corner-shop, just no stupid physical card needed.

Heh. “All-digital” solution. A few bugs in software/hardware could spell the doom of those digital eSIM. And calling SIM card e-waste nonsense is ignoring bigger elephant in the room, which are more phones being thrown away that costs much much more to build. Either way, discarding SIM card with such attitude is just crazy.

On top of that, government regulators dont give a ^*&^*& about the so-called “all digital” future, and will procrastinate as long as they can get away with, alongside telco companies.

 

[Shirasaki]

you will have even less control and you will be happy...

Happy to have no choice……
What a world we live in.

 

[Pezimak]

If they did that they would be severely limiting their market. Many providers still don’t provide e sim options, mine don’t and I’m not about to leave them because a phone won’t support the standard usual SIM cards.