News Apple proposes smaller SIM cards

Apple plans smaller SIMs to enable slimmer handsets in the future.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/05/23/size-of-sim-cards-holding-back-mobile-devic/1

 

I'm confused as to how a smaller SIM card would enable slimmer phones...?

 

Don't worry your not alone, but i'm sure someone will tell us soon enough

 

They found a way to feed the phone off radiowaves and don't need a battery anymore?
I'm sure there's lot's and lots of saving in those old-heavy sim-cards.
Creditcard sized phones (no "I" though) do already exist...

Oooooh, I got it, the IWatch.
It's a watch, and it's a Phone, and it's a browser, and it's a mediaplayer, all on your wrist!

Or the IImplant (that's right, two I's!)
Users will have to wear the apple logo on their front head though, can't sell an IProduct without one...

 

Yeh, unless the SIM is placed so it isn't flat with the profile of the phone (which every phone I have ever seen does), then I really don't see how this will help. Perhaps it has to do with the actual SIM mount? Who knows.

 

I suppose a smaller sim would mean a smaller card carrier, but I still don't see it as a way to effectively slim down a phone..

 

Seriously... smaller phones then we allready have are a joke. I'm allready having trouble with those new phones, being sometimes too small allready.

My current phone is 100 x 50 x 10 mm. No smaller phones please.

 

smaller sims would make readers smaller. meaning 3mm off the SIM would make for a total space saving of 5mm or so, Id' guess...
SIM size is one of the factors that's not controlled by simply making the related electronics smaller, unlike say cameras, screens, batteries, etc.
Hence it's a logical appeal to make, even knowing that they can reduce battery size or just drop the camera.
it's also a long-term game to appeal for smaller SIM cards.
It'd take years for that to become mainstream enough to implement in a production device.

 

Smaller could enable more room for more gubbins inside.

Smaller could enable closer contacts, better, smaller design of phone.

 

They want to replace the space used by a large Sim Card, Cradle and Reader with something else. Space which could be used for other things like processing power/memory chips etc. In something so compact the space used for the Sim Card is now quite a large volume and could be best used for something else.

I for one welcome the change if it means better handsets.

 

Or they address they main problem now of battery life.

 

As above, I did not realise the teeny tiny sim card was the limiting factor on the size of a mobile phone.

 

Built-in SIM cards using an open source standard please.

 

or Apple have copyright / patent on a smaller sim design / production method already

 

Guys arguing by "smaller" - did you actually looked at iPhone 4 PCB for example ?

iPhone 4 in parts : http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/kUEKB6Y2Ah5OIfAh.huge
iPhone 4 PCB itself : http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/IP1qEpYFQSSqwSbg.huge

Oh yeah, sure, smaller SIM card gives sooo much space.

 

Soooooo ... you don't think making parts smaller is a good thing?

Please tell me you work as a chip designer ... that would be the ultimate post, from a guy, saying that we don't need smaller parts in phones, from a chip designer ... preferably working for ARM ...



The future, safe, in your hands!

 

Well it is quite big considering the processor is the same size as the sim card holder...

 

OK, everything gets smaller, thats a given, but it seems silly for Apple to positively state their new slim phone technology is so dependent on it?

Having said that I think I may have unearthed the protoype:

 

I've read somewhere that what Apple actually wants is to have a hardwired SIM chip in the phone. So Apple handles all carrier authorization etc.

 

Apple is again trying to push there own standards as they did many times before with the likes of firewire, mini displayport and the mini sim in the iPhone. Proprietary connectors mean the make money with plugs (39€ for a mini displayport to VGA/DVI/HDMI)
Just Apple being Apple