Quartz:
Perhaps the most interesting news about Apple’s new iPad Air 2 tablet is buried at the bottom of one of its marketing pages: It will come pre-installed with a new “Apple SIM” card instead of one from a specific mobile operator.
It’s early, but it’s easy to see how this concept could significantly disrupt the mobile industry if Apple brings it to the iPhone.
That small announcement could be the shot heard round the telecom world.
Oh WOW that is actually really something!
nice.
It’s a neat idea, but at least in the US I don’t see what’s so big about it. We have four carriers, who are all pretty close to the same in pricing. Plus, is it really that hard to swap out SIMs?
Well, that’s the whole point. All the carriers are “pretty close to the same in pricing” because people can’t switch, so there’s no incentive to compete on price. It’s basically collusion. Everyone charges the same thing. If people could switch carriers from one to the other, month-to-month on a whim, I suspect cellular prices would drop DRAMATICALLY thanks to insane competition.
Considering that the carrier selection takes place in the software, I would assume that you would only be able to pick from a specialized list of carrier “tablet-tailored pay-as-you-go” data only plans (1GB for one month: $20-25).
The Apple Sim won’t be coming to any iPhones as long as there are subsidized prices from the carriers.
You’d be surprised at how many people are intimidated by simple things like swapping out SIMs. I suspect that half of the cellphone customers don’t even know that you can use one iPhone with a different carrier. This would advertise that fact.
I suspect that Apple is also doing this to simplify their inventory. Right now, in the US, Apple has 72 different iPhone 6 models (3 colors x 3 memory sizes x 2 sizes (6/6+) x 4 carriers). This would shrink from 72 down to 18 if they all used the SIM.
That’s great and all, but the SIM card isn’t what prevents people from switching month to month. I agree with everything you are saying, and this is a neat technical advancement, but it’s not a world changer.
Absolutely, I think this helps with inventory and reducing the SKUs more than anything, and that is an important advancement for Apple as the line grows in models.
This seems different for iPhones. It definitely is helpful for inventory purposes for Apple, but I doubt the carriers would be on board with this. To what benefit is it to them?
Someone at the event uncork that Apple SIM and post a photo of it, please.
Besides the better inventory management issue, this is another step towards reducing the carriers to dumb pipes down the road. I can see in the very near future where the physical SIM card makes way for a software based SIM with a soldered on chip – just go to to the Settings app and pick your carrier for example. Don’t have to worry about physical SIM cards, and Apple can do away with having a flimsy SIM tray and opening and design a better sealed device. With more and more LTE bands being added, Apple can make a world phone (i believe the iPhone 6 is different for China? could be wrong), you arrive at a new country, simply open up the settings app and select a carrier, easily paid for right on the device thanks to Apple pay.
Anything that reduces friction will likely get adopted very quickly by the consumer.
Swapping is only step 2 or 3. Step 1 is getting one. Step 2, depending on where in the world you are, may well be cutting it to a Nano size and hoping not to screw it up.
And let’s not forget: some carriers (at least where I am) do charge for replacement or additional SIMs.
yes.. it is.. Think about it.. before today, what GSM device could you buy and take it to Sprints CDMA network?
The point is, it’s a universal device that can go onto any network..
The barrier isn’t the sim, so much as it was having to buy new hardware. The sim is simply a symptom of the fact I don’t have to buy a new iPad to go from ATT to Sprint or T-Mobile..
and buying all new hardware thats $600+ IS a fairly big barrier to most consumers.
It’s no surprise that Verizon didn’t want to do this.. They would benefit the least I think.
I’m on AT&T, and I usually get only 1 or 2 dots of signal strength in my house. In a nearby town, I get zero data coverage. And it’s within sight of San Francisco, just across the bay.
My ideal scenario would be this: my next iPhone (probably the 7) will be able to automatically pick the carrier with the best signal strength for voice and the best signal strength for data. It will use the best carrier wherever I happen to be. (Probably Verizon in many areas near me.)
I’d pay Apple every month instead of any one carrier. Apple would pay the carriers on a usage basis. If I used Verizon for 25 minutes of call time and 80MB of data, that’s what Apple would pay Verizon out of my monthly fee. And I’d gladly pay Apple a little more to use the best carrier wherever I am.
So guess what. That would force carriers to compete on quality.
And wouldn’t that be a f-cking great thing?
Read my post. Maybe Apple can get carriers to compete on quality instead of colluding to keep pricing high.
“but I doubt the carriers would be on board with this.”
And yet this is a shipping product… they are already on board with this.
I think you’ll find that the unlocked “t-mobile” phones are selling pretty well. And at full price. People realize the difference between value and price.
Yes. There are enough MNVOs who’ll support an unlocked phone to make me relieved to never have to consider another contract.
This is very nice news, indeed. The iPad was already the device that treated carriers as a dumb pipe, which is how it should be. Making a carrier-switch easier is another shot fired at the shit-headed oligopoly AT&T and Verizon currently enjoy.
Had my iPhone 5s on T-Mob for a year. 30 bucks a month is reasonable. YMMV of course.
T-Mobile is the only major carrier I’d consider using at this point.
But how much battery would it chew up for your phone to be frequently switching carriers and testing them for the best data rate?
No Verizon? Very disappointing.
First of all, Verizon is not on board with it.
Second of all, it’s a only a handful of iPads that have this, not iPhones. Phones and phone carrier plans are totally different than data-only tablet plans.
If you think that in the next year or two Apple will be selling phones directly with Apple Sims in them to use freely on any carrier, you will be devastated.
Yes but the T-Mobile phones use a T-mobile sim card to take advantage of that plan. What matters most is what comes after that data network selection prompt. Apple is in charge of what plans show up in the software, not you and the $30/month Tmobile plan.
Smart.
How about tie carrier subscriptions to Apple IDs, so as long as you carry one device with Apple SIM you have voice/data access? You can have multiple subscriptions (e.g. work and personal) under the same Apple ID, s no need to swap SIMs and/or carry multiple phones.
What does this have to do with turning the carriers into dumb pipes? It just makes it easy to switch, which wasn’t hard in the first place. It doesn’t change their data cap policies, it doesn’t change their pricing policies, and it doesn’t change their contract and ETF policies.
It’s not GSM hardware, it’s LTE. And does this device have CDMA hadrware in addition to GSM and LTE? Because if not, when you don’t have LTE signal from Sprint, you’ll be offline. The SIM card doesn’t magically make a GSM device work on CDMA
I think the difference here is that iPads usually ship unlocked I believe, and iPhones on a subsidy do not.
I think you do protest too much. You’re sounding very much like someone in denial. And, seriously I don’t really care and most certainly won’t be “devastated”.
You however do appear to care enough to post, does this mean if the new iPhones next year come with a similar system, you will be the one who is devastated?
I’m really not sure where you’re going with this. You seem to emphatically care about this subject. Do you work for one of the major US operators, perhaps Verizon? Are we being trolled here by someone with a vested interest? Please advise.
https://www.apple.com/iphone-6/specs/