The iPhone 14, the new generation of smartphones announced this week by Apple, will the first in the industry to completely eliminate support for physical SIM cards which have been with us for decades to connect to GSM networks and access their communication services. If that doesn’t happen, the new iPhones will use eSIM, a bet that all the big manufacturers are sure to follow.

“Apple is Apple” for better or worse, and has a habit of aggressively removing features in the name of “innovation and progress”, although some of them have not been able to avoid criticism that puts this strategy on “commercial” motives » . Apple has a long history. They removed DVD drives from Macs when optical drives were still popular, removed HDMI and MagSafe from MacBook Pros (before bringing them back).

In mobile phones, they were the first to eliminate the audio jack, microSD cards or removable batteries, and they also “drilled” the screen to accommodate the front camera. They recently destroyed the charger and headphones that were usually always included with new devices.

And now it’s time for physical SIM cards. Considering that Apple’s influence is colossal and that it sets the trends in everything it does, especially on mobile devices, you can be sure that all manufacturers will follow the marked path and will phase out SIM cards in future generations. We’ve put you in the shoes of what that might mean.

eSIM vs. Sim

SIM cards (Subscriber identification module) are mandatory for access to the most widely used GSM mobile networks and are provided by telecommunications operators when we enter into contracts for communication and Internet services with them. These cards are removable, they can be removed and placed on a mobile (are removable) and are available in four sizes, from the largest original SIM to the rest of the available formats, mini, micro and nano, the smallest.

SIM cards use a lightweight operating system customized by the manufacturers themselves or based on Java, and their main purpose is to store specific information about the network used to authenticate and identify participants in it. They also have some other functions, such as a list of contacts or numbers, and in recent years the most advanced ones support near field technology, NFC.

A few years ago, the GSMA, an association that brings together the main operators and manufacturers of mobile devices, announced the future exchange of SIM cards, but not without first talking to the big players in the industry, such as Apple and Samsung, who agreed on the need for a more efficient method. modern. This is how eSIM cards were created, virtual SIM cards which have much higher potential than SIM cards and relevant advantages in various fields.

Let’s start with the design itself, because as you know, eSIMs are included as a small chip inserted from the factory on the device boards. Simply, you are Built-in SIM they embed removable SIM card circuitry permanently into a mobile phone’s chipset. Thus, when changing operators, the user does not have to go to the store to buy a SIM (or wait for it to arrive in the mail).

Portability can be much faster, as well as contracting for additional services, easier after a simple setup (operator QR code) that allows the mobile device to connect to the operator’s network without the need for a physical SIM card.

In addition, virtual SIM card data is stored in the cloud, so it can be easily used on multiple devices by simply entering the user’s credentials. And potentially multiple phone numbers and services and from multiple operators, extending the benefits we currently get with dual SIM, but on a large scale, e.g. get different professional and personal profiles or various voice and data services.

In addition, it should be remembered that all these functions can be extended to other devices that are not smartphones, from wearables to what comes from the Internet of Things and of course in computers to achieve the concept of “always connected” thanks to eSIM and advanced networks like 5G.

Does eSIM have disadvantages?

If the above benefits are compelling, there may also be some issues with using it, the first being that there are smaller ISPs that will be left out of the game because they don’t yet support eSIM. And there are many users who use these cheap ISPs.

The absence of a physical SIM slot will be problematic especially when you want to log in to a prepaid mobile account. for use in another country while traveling, as it is often much cheaper than relying on mobile phone providers. These options are generally used with physical cards and therefore will not be possible with new Apple mobile devices. In theory, as it remains to be seen how they will eventually be implemented.

All Apple terminals since the 2018 iPhone XR support two SIM cards, a physical nano-SIM and an eSIM. Google terminals from the Pixel 2 and the latest Samsung Galaxy are also compatible, but with the iPhone 14 series Apple is the first to ditch the use of a physical SIM entirely. The truth is that someone had to make a definitive move to promote eSIM, with some of the above problems, but with many other benefits.

Get ready because all the mobile device manufacturers will surely follow this strategy in the short term. Most major telecom operators support eSIM and there should be no major difficulties in the final transition. Not even in mobile operating systems with iOS 16 and Android 13, which will include support for multiple MEP profiles in one eSIM and thanks to which we will be able to connect to several different operators at the same time.