"With smartphones, where Apple leads others often follow - so it launching an iPhone this week without a traditional SIM card is raising questions over the future of a very familiar piece of phone tech. All phone users will be used to the small plastic cards they need to delicately insert into their devices to make them operate. But for buyers of the iPhone Air, that will be a thing of the past."
"It will only operate with an eSIM - which allows users to switch networks or plans without resorting to a fiddly fork to open a tiny SIM card tray. Analyst Kester Mann, from CCS Insight, told BBC News that Apple's announcement "marks the beginning of the end of the physical SIM card". But how long will it be before we have all discarded our little chip-carrying pieces of plastic - and what difference will it make to how we use our phones?"
The iPhone Air will function exclusively with an eSIM, eliminating the need for a physical SIM tray and plastic SIM cards. eSIMs enable users to switch networks or plans without a physical card or SIM-eject tool. The US has had eSIM-only iPhones since 2022, and some recently announced iPhone models will be eSIM-only in certain markets while retaining physical SIM slots in most countries. Major manufacturers such as Samsung and Google offer eSIM options but continue to include physical SIMs in many regions, making the transition uneven globally.
Read at www.bbc.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]