02 Apr Apple’s Plan For An Embedded SIM
Talk of an embedded SIM card for the iPhone already started back in October 2010, when sources inside European carriers reported that Apple had been working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to produce an embedded SIM card. This would ultimately enable Apple to reduce the role of carriers in iPhone purchases, by allowing consumers to choose a phone and the plan with the selected carrier in an Apple store on online with minimal interaction with the carrier. In November 2011, Apple was granted a patent that “sets out a way to incorporate a subscriber identity module (SIM) into the body of a mobile phone, within an embedded secure element.”
Source: Giesecke & Devrient
With confirmation that the European Telecomes Standards Institute (ETSI) is looking into Apple’s proposal for a new standardized SIM-card much smaller than the current micro-SIM used in the iPhone and iPad, the possibility of an embedded SIM is becoming even more plausible. This “nano-SIM” would afford Apple more space within their devices that could be used for bigger processors, batteries or other elements. A decision on the nano-SIM has yet to be reached by ETSI as Nokia and Apple advocated different standards, prompting the ETSI to postpone the vote.