Apple launched iPhone XS with eSIM in 2018. I think if carriers wanted to move away from SIM cards, they would have done so. Consumers are in the middle and will pay for the inconvenience and higher prices.
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Other iPhone 14 with SIM card tray
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Apple launched iPhone XS with eSIM in 2018. I think if carriers wanted to move away from SIM cards, they would have done so. Consumers are in the middle and will pay for the inconvenience and higher prices.
Do you have any stats that show the carriers haven’t gradually moved towards esim, how many physical sims in 2019 v 2022 ?
Of course carriers have moved towards eSIM. The issue is the transition is incomplete. This is like the MacBook Pro 2016 all over again. Not everybody was ready for USB-C and consumers ended up paying the price which ultimately led to the return of the HDMI port and card reader.
Who says it needs to be accelerated?
Removing physical SIM only benefits Apple as it gives them greater leverage over carriers. You need to be an approved carrier to remain on Apple's list or your service might not even show up on the iPhone.
I’m done in that case. Cancelling my preorder. Just got alienated by Apple since I need a physical sim tray to use in foreign lands .
Indeed. Some countries don’t offer eSim for prepaid customers.
In 3 years time, all iPhones (at least in the US) will be eSIM only. And I have a feeling by iPhone 15 or 16, Apple will also push eSIM only iPhones in some countries like Japan and some western European countries.
This is the really annoying thing. eSIM is supposed to make portability more seamless, which is useful for prepaid and tourists. But these lazy carriers are intentionally restricting the tech.
If I go ahead and order my iPhone 14 PM on Friday then I’ll be left with little to zero choices of a prepaid plain when I enter the UK in regards to eSim choices. I’m done.
Apple has 3 different SKUs now for reasons only Tim Cook will understand.
US SKUs: no SIM tray, but mmwave
ROW SKUs: one nano SIM tray + eSIM
China, Hong Kong, Macau SKUs: dual nano SIM tray, no eSIM
So if you want to buy a specific one you'd have to buy it in a specific country.
Apple wants to keep U.S. business customers and knows many need to travel the world to work with local companies. It is completely impractical and unfair to have their employees call or SMS a U.S. number just to communicate with a visitor, who might be somewhere in their plant or two hangers away on a flightline.
I understand that Apple wants to force telcos globally to move to the eSIM; however, it needs to permit U.S. business customers who travel internationally to special order an iPhone 14 with one eSIM and one SIM tray so they can use destination SIM cardS to communicate with local workers.
From all iPhones Apple is selling in the US, there are still the SE, 12, and 13 that have physical SIM slot. If physical SIM slot is a requirement, than wanting a 14 is just a want, not a need.
Removing physical sims has wider benefits IMHO…. Dont you think ? …. Yes it inconveniences you …. But for the greater good surely it’s better….. millions of physical sims don’t need to be produced and disposed of. I suggest you are perhaps looking at it from your own perspective as will others but in the grand scheme of things if every carrier moves to esim it’s surely more efficient for all ?
I would suggest that any company worth its salt has provisions for their frequent travellers …. Corporate Roaming plans are not unusual and VOIP is widely used. If you really need a sim slot then buying another model that has one is an option.
Perhaps I’m unusual but I haven’t purchased a physical SIM to roam in ages. Gone are the days of me carrying a Sim for countries I visit.
The "greater good" would be consumer access to all available carriers globally. That means carriers who use physical SIMs and eSIMs.
In your opinion of course. … You do have access just not with a 14 …. Your choice what model you buy.
eSim swap is all done on the app for EE here in the UK. No need to call anyone. Worked very smoothly last year for me.
Given there's a 20 page and counting thread on the main page, it's clear many people share my opinion.
It's obviously a correct one as well. Nobody is silly enough to argue saving a plastic SIM card is better for the "greater good." Not even Apple is pushing that silly angle.
OK … I’m silly …. So mr or ms Sensible why are they doing it ? …. Tell me your conspiracy theory ?
Nothing is ‘obviously’ correct …. It’s a personal opinion. An opinion is just that.
Perhaps the other thread is populated with sensible people like you who want to live in the dark ages of swapping sims around. 😉
The blunt reality is you have to suck it up. However much you bleat.
But other network support is patchy. Three don’t support sim at all on phones yet, O2 insist you get a paper QR code ”for security reasons”, not sure about Vodafone or Virgin but I think they are better than O2. Also, as far as I am aware none support sim on pre-pay yet.
Unfortunately this is increasingly an “edge case” scenario. The percentage of iPhone users that do this is probably in the single digit percentages, and Apple with their “courage” has deemed it obsolete.
In truth, I used to swap sims internationally all the time. But now I rarely bother. It’s too inconvenient to have to juggle the phone number swapping, and international data plans are cheap enough that if you can afford the latest iPhone, you can likely afford a few extra bucks on data, or keep an older phone around for travel.
We're talking about a SECOND sim, not your primary one. Users keep using their primary carrier, and can add the secondary temporary one when abroad, to receive calls on either/both while away – no swapping around sims involved.
But yes, e-sims are becoming easy to install as secondary carrier now anyway via apps/codes/QR's, and/or multi-region coverage on your primary carrier (e.g. across Europe, or 73 countries like Three UK does, etc.) making using any kind of secondary sim in territories your primary sim plan already covers largely redundant. Except for edge-cases who may need vast amounts of data and cannot do so from local WiFi connections, for whatever reason.
You’re canceling a pre-order that hasn’t happened yet? Did you travel through time to tomorrow, placed a pre-order, and travel back to today and are going to cancel it?