News Apple proposes smaller SIM cards

Making things smaller is a good thing - but not at expense of compatibility (which their microSIM is - incompatible with everything else). If they want to get smaller, why do they still use their proprietary dock connector instead of the microUSB everyone else uses ? Isn't smaller better ? Or only if it fits Apple agenda ?

 

The word in the article (and at the top of this thread) is SLIMMER, not smaller.

I can understand how a smaller SIM card will free up more PCB space for other things, but I'm still at a loss to see how it could enable slimmer phones - while a smaller SIM card will mean a smaller area for the card reader, surely the depth of the reader won't change, since the depth of a SIM card will remain the same, regardless of its size - and even if that does change, you'd only gain a fraction of a millimetre. Considerably more depth in the phone is taken up by the screen and battery than by the SIM card reader...

It might be Apple being Apple, but it's being ratified by an independent group, so it won't get through unless a majority of manufacturers & carriers agree.

 

We're talking about SIM cards which are regulated by ETSI (according to article) to get the smaller form recognised. Apple does not dictate the SIM standards.

Refer you to:

The only things to iron-out is what the SIM will look like after it gets smaller.

Whether it will be what Apple wants is up to the industry, not Apple.

Added: going out on a limb here ... would we be debating this if Nokia had suggested a new form?

 

Smaller SIM cards = more space for battery/chips meaning you could make a flatter battery but with the same volume?

 

Yeah, considering Nokia's failure to to get even the basics right lately I would certainly be questioning it they had suggested it But I see ya point.

 

Or how about if they could figure a way to do it with no sim card, such as the way android requires a google log on when you set it up- Phones require the correct credentials of a "sim" account to be entered, and a password- That'd make it allot easier! then that saves more room, presumably uses less energy (not having to read to and from the sim) and cuts down on manufacturing costs for the phone companies and the manufacturers...

 

I don't know what's worse, the constant blog-sphere repetition of "Apple is doing this for this reason" or the fact that any such statement stirs all the apple haters and apple fanbois into all out war.

Facts:

- Apple didn't say it was for a slimmer device
- Apple didn't say anything (Does it sound right that apple explain themselves?), it was a brief quote from an exec at Orange.
- Reuters added the "for slimmer devices" explanation.
- Apple are simply suggesting a new smaller "standard" they are doing this via ETSI.

So this isn't a story of apple going off solo and doing their own thing, it's them proposing a change and going down official channels to do it. Luv em or hate em, apple are innovating in the mobile arena. So what's wrong with a smaller SIM standard anyway? Even if it only saves a few cubic millimeters of plastic?

 

so in 2 years time, are apple gonna start suing everyone because they came up with the "idea" of smaller SIM cards?

 

i apologise if this sounds daft but...

... what's wrong with SIM cards as they are? do they *really* need to be smaller? its not like they're massive to begin with

 

I really don't understand why a smaller SIM card would be better for design either. It would be easier to lose (not that I ever really have a need to take out my SIM card but I'm sure someone out there does) and wouldn't it hold less data than it already does? How advanced has SIM card tech really gotten, could it still hold the same amount of data as an older beefy cards? I get 150 contacts with my SIM card from AT&T in my blackberry.

 

i remember when...........sim cards were the size of creditcards, and you had to insert the whole card in the Phone

 

My credit card sized sim doesn't fit in my new phone! I'm blaming Apple! & Orange!

 

I'm guessing you could make them the same size as microsd cards. And they can hold what 32/64gb of data.

 

phones are slim enough. I would rather function over form.

 

This isn't another one of those Apple proprietary type deals again, is it?
Be innovative, be different, be a pain in the ar$e.

 

Ooh that could be a good idea. Could you not just get rid of sims and just use micro sd cards?

 

That doesnt have security disaster written all over it

 

you wouldnt be able to use an sd card, but you could use the tech or similar to create the new sim standard. although i think that would be as small as you could/should go as anything smaller would be too small to use on the consumer side. anything smaller and your better off having built in sims which comes with its own set of problems.

 

Am I the only one thinking smaller sim's would also mean you could throw them in other devices too?

 

feckin hell I battle now as it is putting them in for the customers. Next I'll be using tweasers.