Built in SIM card

[JiggyJaggy]

Just wondering my Apple don't give the option to build Macbook's with built in SIM cards or at least some card trays like the Cellular iPads? Would be perfect for those on the go all the time to save having to tethering.

Sometime my iP13 takes 4/5 attempts to connect as a BT Hotspot...

 

[thenewperson]

I think they don't want to pay Qualcomm per device. iPhones are probably already up there so Macs would just hurt more.

 

[MrGunny94]

Won't happen until they have their own modems.

They just want to avoid Qualcomm as much as possible. But I do know what you mean.. I have a 13.3" Intel Dell laptop with SIM card and it's always good to have it there when I don't have Wi-Fi.

 

[Feek]

I think the argument will always be that tethering via an iPhone is easy and pretty much automatic. And they're not wrong, it does work well.

 

[Admiral]

Correct. Tethering an iPhone works well and has the advantage that Apple can sell an iPhone.

 

[VivienM]

Just wondering my Apple don't give the option to build Macbook's with built in SIM cards or at least some card trays like the Cellular iPads? Would be perfect for those on the go all the time to save having to tethering.

Sometime my iP13 takes 4/5 attempts to connect as a BT Hotspot...

The issue is not 'built-in SIM cards'; the issue is including a cellular modem.

This is one of those great mysteries. With Apple Silicon and eSIM, it would be easy to include cellular support if they wanted to. Much easier than in Intel-land with physical SIM. All the engineering to connect an M2 to a cellular modem has already been done for the cellular M2 iPads!

But... the other thing they may be looking at is sales data from Windows land. Dell/Lenovo/HP have offered cellular options on their business laptops for close to 20 years. For a time, they even shipped all models of some business laptops with the SIM card slot, the cable to it, etc, so the only thing you needed to add was the cellular modem card itself. But inventory configurations sold through VARs like CDW rarely have the cellular option, etc, and so I think very, very few people actually buy the cellular-capable Windows laptops. Apple may be looking at those numbers and saying 'our take rate would be even lower, it's not worth it.' Doesn't help that while Dell/Lenovo/HP can offer a single mPCI/mPCIe/M.2 card model across an entire year or two or three of their business laptop lineup, Apple would be building it into the logic board, therefore they would double the number of logic board variants. That's a lot of supply chain complexity especially when the move to soldered RAM/storage/etc has already caused a huge increase in the number of logic board variants.

The other thing to note is the experience with the iPads. It's very unusual that Apple has offered every configuration of iPad with a cellular option. Some people know about cellular iPads and absolutely love them, but the impression I get (speaking as someone who orders and hands out cellular-capable models exclusively in a workplace) is that most iPad buyers only know about the wifi option and don't even think about cellular when buying. Who knows what the take rate on cellular iPads is.

 

[Feek]

Who knows what the take rate on cellular iPads is.

From my experience in dealing with a company mobile phone contract, any iPads we got as part of the contract were cellular but we never issued them with SIM cards. I think a lot of cellular iPads enter the world in that way, as part of a deal where the provider hopes they'll get an additional data contract out of them.

 

[Longplays]

Kuo: Apple's Work on 5G Modem Chip 'Failed,' Qualcomm to Remain Supplier for 2023 iPhones

For the last several years, Apple has been working to develop its own 5G modem chip so that it won't need to rely on Qualcomm as a supplier, but...

www.macrumors.com

At this rate Apple's cellular modem may end up being a 6G one.

A motive for Apple to do this in-house is to unload the % of MSRP of device licensing fee Qualcomm imposes on all brands.

Apple bought out Intel's cellular modem business to accomplish this.

When Apple has its own 5G/6G modem they will likely deploy it to all devices including AirPods and AirTags when size and power consumption become low enough.

 

[VivienM]

From my experience in dealing with a company mobile phone contract, any iPads we got as part of the contract were cellular but we never issued them with SIM cards. I think a lot of cellular iPads enter the world in that way, as part of a deal where the provider hopes they'll get an additional data contract out of them.

May I ask why the company chose to do this rather than just buy wifi-only models through some other supply chain? Was there a thought that maybe SIM cards would be issued (e.g. if the CEO asked for cellular service)... but that simply never happened?

 

[Longplays]

May I ask why the company chose to do this rather than just buy wifi-only models through some other supply chain? Was there a thought that maybe SIM cards would be issued (e.g. if the CEO asked for cellular service)... but that simply never happened?

On our end we did this as the telco allowed us to pay this over a 3 year period at Apple MSRP.

 

[VivienM]

On our end we did this as the telco allowed us to pay this over a 3 year period at Apple MSRP.

And they were happy to do so even if you didn't activate corresponding data service? I don't think the telcos here would be that kind...

 

[Longplays]

And they were happy to do so even if you didn't activate corresponding data service? I don't think the telcos here would be that kind...

What they care about is we pay our monthly bill. They could care less if the SIM was ever used.

I did not think of this back in 2018 when the iPad Pro 11" came out. I could have requested for one for personal use and paid for it as a salary deduction.

It helps your employer increase their business expense.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

This is the one thing for which I still have a 12.9 cellular iPP and trying to use it as laptop replacement on some ocasion.
Yes, usually tethering works but there are situations in which you prefer to conserv your phone's battery life and the cellular conectivity in laptops comes handy.