News Apple proposes smaller SIM cards

If they can hold more than the 100 numbers etc than the existing sim cards then I'm happy with that.
If they have the same limitations, then I don't see the point.

 

Just FYI regarding my earlier post.

 

you mean like this?


sorry for the bad gimping

 

except in chrome / brushed aluminum as opposed to technicolor

 

I used technicolour in the first one since the show was made in the 90's

 

Classic case of people abusing Apple for no reason whatsoever. I see nothing wrong with proposing, through industry standard methods, a new and smaller SIM standard. Reducing size of the SIM reduces the size of the holder too, freeing up space for more gubbins like better batteries and faster CPU's in a smaller slimmer package.

Sometimes I love the awesomeness of the internet, sometimes it's just sheep all saying the same thing because it's cool at the time. Innovation shouldn't be criticised, even if it is Apple.

 

I thought Apple could use flexible shaped non-removable Li-Ion polymer batteries in their phones? (Must confense I haven't bothered to look at an iPhone 4 tear-down though...) Surely that's where it starts to make a big difference. (Sim card holders take up a lot potential battery space.) You know Steve probably gets his micro-meter out every time he is handed a prototype of the next iPhone. We are surely taking about the next major iPhone release only being able to shed a millimeter or two - well without a change in battery technology or an increase in the screen size. Plug in 1m antenna will be next... Look cool (in the long time) between calls

 

Why has there not been one comment about how this would make it tonnes more difficult (or maybe impossible) to travel on holiday and pop in new sim cards?

Smaller sims or none at all might make sense from a technical standpoint, but not at all from a user standpoint... unless you could convince every carrier in the world to support the new standard instantly. I'm sure locking people out of using local sims would be in the interest of big carriers because they force people to use roaming... not sure what Apple gets out of it, because the microSIM is awfully small already and pretty new (only Apple has adopted it, and small regional carriers around the world still don't support it).

 

Anyone has any idea how small are we talking here? Micro sims are just chopped down sims anyway. So just going to reduce the size some more? Halve it again? Or just directly hardwire the sims in? That would be the ultimate carrier lock wouldn't it with a non user-replaceable sim.

 

How about increasing capacity without making the SIM cards smaller. If you intend the SIM cards to be swappable, you don't want your customer to have to use a magnifying glass during the swap. Micro cards are small enough, I don't think we need to manufacture them smaller.

 

It's not the size of the sim card that limits the tickness of the phone, it's the strength of the phone itself.
I used to have a Samsung X820. (Actiually, I owned three). They were so thin they kept snapping where the screen met the keypad. They used a standard sized sim card and I fail to see how a smaller sim would have made them any thinner while resolving the breakage issue.

 

Oh look apple are trying to make a new standard, now there is a surprise....

 

Well, I agree the Sim-card used now could be a bit smaller (it sure could be a lot smarter though...)
But I also agree anything smaller than MicroSD becomes unworkable (actually MicroSD is too small for my fingers)

 

I used to watch that when I was a youth in Holland (we got BBC in Holland back then).
It was great!
Learned half my colloquial english from that.

"No household appliance should give a man a double polaroid"

 

Considering Apple are pretty much on record as wanting to get rid of the GSM hardware SIM entirely (all the better to end network lock-in and steal yet more margin off the operators) then reducing the size would seem a fairly logical step to get the punters' brains nudged in the "right" direction.

As plenty here have already said, the "smaller phones" reasoning apparently put forward by Apple looks like a massive red herring given the comparatively puny volume saved by shrinking the SIM.

 

just had a brain fart. would it not be possible to have a credit card which loads up your network info via near field communication doing away with a physical sim altogether yet still keeping the ability to "change sim".

 

i give my approval if it makes smartphones smaller

 

Probably not. I'm not an Apple fan but it's still fun to see the over the top Apple haters go crazy over things simply because Apple is involved, regardless of whether there's really a problem with it. There certainly wasn't such a fuss over the creation of Micro-SIM.

Hate to say it, but this isn't Mac vs. PC. Function and form go hand in hand in the smartphone market. Smaller form for your SIM card and you've got more room for "function" components, or more freedom for your arrangement of components.

 

Went and had a look at digikey parts. Apparently the current sim card readers are a grand total of 1mm thick. Kinda makes the whole idea of slimmer readers questionable.

And the space savings from sim to micro sim got us what? 150mm2 Might be enough room for another 3 or 4 basic smc. Not exactly sufficient for ground breaking improvements. Might be a case of good enough is enough. But hey, I'd sure be glad to be proven wrong if the rest of the industry thinks that there's bigger improvements to be had.