Steve Jobs Wanted Original iPhone to Have No SIM Card Slot, Says Former iPod VP

[elvisimprsntr]

I just don’t get this business model so popular in America. Why don’t you buy the phone unlocked and get a cheap plan? Carriers don’t subsidize anything, they just sell you preposterously expensive plans and/or conditions.

Where exactly did I say that I didn't buy an unlock phone?. Subsidized or not, carriers charge activation extortion fees. Since I'm on a discounted business plan, I can usually get them to reimburse the fees, but it's not automatic and it's like pulling teeth to get them to do so.

 

[jlc1978]

I just don’t get this business model so popular in America. Why don’t you buy the phone unlocked and get a cheap plan? Carriers don’t subsidize anything, they just sell you preposterously expensive plans and/or conditions.

Oddly, locked phones are often the cheap ones on cheap plans from discount MVNO's who want to lock you in to them. Phones are cheap but they stay locked until you've been on a plan for a set period of time, in many cases.

For things like iPhones, major carries' tradeins are often better deals than buying one from Apple, even considering it's a bill credit plus some upfront cash. My plan is as cheap as most major carriers in say the EU, plus has a much larger area where I still can use unlimited data and texting at no additional charge; for example in the US as well as in teh EU, even if the data is low speed.

If I want, my carrier will unlock the phone anyway, I've just had no reason to since I use it when travelling internationally on my existing plan at no extra charge.

Where exactly did I say that I didn't buy an unlock phone?. Subsidized or not, carriers charge activation extortion fees. Since I'm on a discounted business plan, I can usually get them to reimburse the fees, but it's not automatic and it's like pulling teeth to get them to do so.

That's what I like about T-Mobile, I simply call in to activate and there is no charge. They've also credited back store charges as well.

 

[ingambe]

The physical SIM slot is just a waste of space in this day and age that could be used for something else, I've used eSIMS only on my iPhone as soon as I was able to, so I just have an empty slot taking up space for not reason. About time the slot was scrapped as its a relic from the 90's that doesn't need to be there.

And for everyone that says they will move to another phone if the slot is removed, you can bet as soon as one company removes it the rest will eventually follow as usual.

Exactly it leaves more space for other things + more water-resistant phones

Also, it's super convenient to subscribe to a contract and receive your esim in less than 5 minutes via email

 

[ingambe]

I can see Apple wanting to remove the SIM to safe space and make the iPhone more waterproof. The hard part is going to be getting all the carriers to go along with it and to make switch eSIMs as easy as physical ones.

As soon as iPhones are esim only, the next day each provider will have an esim option.

Not being iPhone compatible is a deal-breaker for a lot of people

 

[jlc1978]

Exactly it leaves more space for other things + more water-resistant phones

While they’re at it they could ditch a charging port and go wireless for even more space and watertight phones.

Also, it's super convenient to subscribe to a contract and receive your esim in less than 5 minutes via email

Unless you don’t have access to email or want to quickly switch phones.

 

[chanchowancho]

As someone who used to swap between iOS and Android phones multiple times a year, switching to eSIM made the whole process much more complex.

Previously when a new toy came in, I’d pop out the SIM, slap it in the new phone, and in about 10 minutes all my accounts would be downloaded and I’d be off at the races.

My carrier has a lot of privacy protections around eSIM swaps, so I need to go to a physical store, answer security questions and show a form of ID, hand them both phones, then they swap the eSIM by scanning a code - anywhere from 5 to 40 minutes later the service transfers on a network level, and then I can start swapping my accounts.

It really has added much more friction to the entire process, and has kept me on the same iPhone for almost a year now.

My partner still uses a SIM, and in early 2021 A friend sold me a sweet iPhone 12 Pro Max for about 1/3 of its retail price. I couldn’t say no… I intended to use it for myself, but I picked it up before a long holiday weekend where all the stores are closed - my partner ended up just slapping her SIM in and she’s never looked back! I never did get that 12 Pro Max ?

Maybe that is what apple wants? If there are more steps in the process than popping out a card, less people will try an android for a week or a month?

 

[Pre86]

When did that happen? I'm on TMO and haven't experienced it. I'm not discounting your experience but it's the first time I'm hearing about it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253750348?page=1 definitely didn’t hit everyone with the e-sim but appears it wasn’t just an isolated instance.

 

[Project Alice]

So much for dual sim…

 

[TrancyGoose]

God it's a pain in the a*** when you travel, cause eSim isn't always available, and not in every provider!

 

[NYCValkyrie]

So much for dual sim…

I'm not sure what this means but I have 2 sims working right now. Both eSIM.

 

[Project Alice]

I'm not sure what this means but I have 2 sims working right now. Both eSIM.

I thought you could only have one eSIM on iPhones

 

[NYCValkyrie]

I thought you could only have one eSIM on iPhones

iPhone 13 allows 2 eSIM.

iPhone 13 and 13 Pro are Apple's first phones with dual eSIM support

Apple's iPhone 13 and 13 Pro are the company's first phones with dual eSIM support — you can use two lines without a SIM card.

www.engadget.com

 

[fredrik9]

Once the slot is gone then there’s only one port left until perhaps a fully waterproof phone.

 

[Reason077]

God it's a pain in the a*** when you travel, cause eSim isn't always available, and not in every provider!

That will change soon enough once manufacturers start releasing eSim-only phones.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

If it really were a simple and free process you could have a small iPhone and a large iPhone; activate the small one if you are going out because it will slip in your pocket easier and activate the big one when that doesn't matter.

I camp and backpack a lot. I put my sim in a cheap flip phone with a weeklong battery life when I'm going to be in the woods for a while. I don't have access to power.

How often? I've done it four times this year.

 

[darngooddesign]

I camp and backpack a lot. I put my sim in a cheap flip phone with a weeklong battery life when I'm going to be in the woods for a while. I don't have access to power.

How often? I've done it four times this year.

There are reason to like either type of SIM, and yours is a perfectly valid use-case. I would probably get a cheap prepaid flip phone for your kind of situation if Apple went eSIM only and set my iPhone account to forward to that number.

 

[thalegold]

At least half of the things that Tim Cook and Apple does today would not be acceptable by Steve Jobs. Tim Cook is not a genius. Steve Jobs was an inventory, visionary, and genius along with Woz and the rest of his team. Tim Cook is a business man, not a visionary. The Apple phone lags way beyond the other phones of today. Their technology is so outdated and constantly trying to catch up with what is really happening with phones today. I guarantee that, besides the stupid notch, the next iPhone will look just like the previous iPhone. Same look and feel.

 

[ackmondual]

Yeah, having SIM card slots is nice (I hear nowadays, some phones have dual SIM card slots!). I know people who travel to China often, so they just swap out their SIM card that they use in the US for one for China. Works seamlessly, without the crippling roaming charges.

On a related note, I heard Jobs was also obsessed with NOT having protruding sections for camera lenses, going so far as to tell his engineers to do something like "put in a series of mirrors so it goes sideways instead".

 

[raghu8912]

while traveling i noticed eSim is not a thing in alot of countries, this is gonna be fun for folks who does alot of internationals.

eSIM is pain, we have to get new barcode to scan every time i change phones, they have to streamline the process.

 

[raghu8912]

Yeah, having SIM card slots is nice (I hear nowadays, some phones have dual SIM card slots!). I know people who travel to China often, so they just swap out their SIM card that they use in the US for one for China. Works seamlessly, without the crippling roaming charges.

On a related note, I heard Jobs was also obsessed with NOT having protruding sections for camera lenses, going so far as to tell his engineers to do something like "put in a series of mirrors so it goes sideways instead".

I heard Jobs was also obsessed with NOT having protruding sections for camera lenses
if he was alive, he would have found a solution for that problem.

 

[jlc1978]

I heard Jobs was also obsessed with NOT having protruding sections for camera lenses
if he was alive, he would have found a solution for that problem.

Simple solution: Thicker iPhone

 

[shplock]

while traveling i noticed eSim is not a thing in alot of countries, this is gonna be fun for folks who does alot of internationals.

If I were Tim Cook I would swap all iPhones over to eSIM in September and inform any country that does not support the technology to get on board or get left behind, as otherwise Apple will have to wait forever.
Why allow dumb laggard countries to hold back progress?
Sadly Tim will do no such thing as he is nowhere near the league that Steve Jobs operated in

 

[shplock]

Why remove functionality. Granted it would be more watertight but an eSIM and slot allows for two numbers to be used easily as well and swap out for a local SIM when traveling.

An eSIM might involve needing to go to a carrier to activate which is one more hassle that can be avoided.

I disagree as I have used an eSIM and nothing easier!

 

[shplock]

We already knew this, or is this just interesting notes from Tony's discussion?

If you read about Project Purple, Steve fought hard to make Apple an NVMO, but someone finally got through his thick skull the mind numbing costs of building much less maintaining that kind of network.

Then he wanted CDMA, but GSM adoption was 3-4x that and would cripple the iPhone's market potential. But the argument raged for over a year because CDMA is a newer tech and Apple could be the company to expand the CDMA market by leveraging its customer base as the adoption increasing element. What ended it was Cingular buying AT&T and Jobs fell in love with the idea of using the oldest American phone company name as a huge draw to the nascent product. AT&T created the phone system, and so it was fate for the iPhone to be on it.

I don't know if he was aware, maybe the engineers were, but AT&T created UNIX and the fork of Version 4 became BSD, the foundation for Darwin. Darwin is the base layer for MacOS X and all of its forks, including iOS.

And iirc, Steve got embarassed in front of a Cingular exec because he demanded the iPhone to be all aluminum and the radio was useless, hence the black plastic passthrough on the back of the 2G prototype and eventual launch model.

Steve may have had his failures but he was far more successful than you ever will be or I for that matter because sometimes what people can not get into their thick skulls is that some ideas seem daft at the time and in future are not daft.
Yes yes yes I know what you will say "but but but some ideas are daft then and now" and yes you are only half right.
Though the bigger point is that Apple being virtual mobile phone operator might have some costs attached to it but in case you forgot
1) Apple has more money than most countries do right now
2) We are talking virtual not actual so the costs will not be as great as you imply.

It makes great sense for Apple to become their own carrier but once again Cook is not smart enough to realise that.

 

[shplock]

This is a bit like using nanoSIMs. The iPhone pioneered that, at a moment when very few carriers provided them. The difference is that you could cut normal SIMs to nanoSIM size and, conversely, adapt your nanoSIM to other phones' SIM slots.

Now, however, if I travel to a country where no carrier offers eSIM, I'm out of luck. If my preferred carrier doesn't offer eSIM, I'm out of luck. If on arrival I can't contact a carrier offering eSIM, or their processes are cumbersome and/or request national IDs or an internet connection, I'm out of luck.

Seriously, Apple: don't.

Your argument then is that Ford should not have built the Model T Ford because you know....hardly any roads or gas stations or service centres and so the early buyers would find things difficult for a while until industry and government was thus forced to supply said things.
Interesting, so Apple....YES!