eSIM is a customer-hostile tech pushed by Apple because it locks users to their phones with the extra upside (for Apple) that it reduces Apple’s BOM (and no, you won’t get any price reduction from it).
Wow your perspective is skewed. It does nothing to lock users to iPhones and provides many benefits to consumers today, with even more as the carriers improve their eSIM infrastructure. As for pricing, Apple’s margin on its products has remained remarkably consistent for years. That means you are not paying for something they are not including. Instead, Apple includes as much as it can to stay within the same price envelope as it has.
Same as the removal of the headphone jack, which was simply the removal of a feature (my wife now uses a dongle, she likes her wired headphones - I was lucky I had wired/BT headphones). There was no advantage for the user.
As has been pointed out before, the advantages to users are: freeing up space that was taken by the giant 3.5MM connector, and the improved IP protection with the removal of another hole in the case.
And for Android phones, the removal of the microSD card, which meant the nuking of a very cheap storage extension option (I used a 512Gb card on my last Android phone, for music/photos/videos) compared to the hundreds of $/euro you need to pay now for the privilege.
Never used a micoSD card with my phone, so I have no dog in this fight, however, I do know from having spoken to many carrier technical representatives at ITU-D, ITU-R, CES and Mobile World Congress, their biggest support problems come from issues with SD Card slots, either from the connector breaking, the SD card failing, compatibility issues with SD cards,
etc., so while you may have liked it, there were lots of issues with it. (Again, I never used it, so I do not care one way or another.)
There’s just almost nothing eSIM does better than regular SIM. I’ll be upfront about the single possible advantage. For some operators, you can get connected using their website, instead of waiting for them to mail you the SIM card. That’s it. A one time thing, and it’s not for all operators.
Despite being a very new infrastructure, it is already possible to activate an eSIM from many carriers without needing to go into a physical office. This alone makes it worth it. However, as I pointed out before, for those of us that travel internationally, the additional benefit of having 8 eSIMs on one’s device without needing to carry (and sometimes lose) a little wallet with physical SIM cards is a huge win. It also means that I would know if I lost the device holding all my SIMs, as it would be my iPhone and not some tiny thing I might not know I lose for days or weeks.
Now let’s look at the downsides. Mind you, a lot of operators don’t have any advantage in connecting - mine included. You need to wait for them to mail you a single-use QR code, to load the profile, same as waiting for the SIM card.
Yes, it is still a new technology, and not all carriers have fully updated their systems. I do guarantee that no carrier is going to keep a process where they mail you something for very long, as it costs them more and support calls.
The big catch is when transferring it. If I smash my iPhone tomorrow morning and it’s completely non-functional, I can simply remove the SIM card and put it in my old Android phone, and I have working calls/data.
Assuming the iPhone’s SIM try was not damaged in your convenient accident. Also, assuming that the SIM tray on your old Android had not become janky (something that happens quite often - another frequent carrier support issue).
With eSIM, this just isn‘t possible - I need to contact my carrier and get them to mail me (2 days where I live) a QR code or physical SIM that will enable the backup phone to connect to the network.
In the U.S. most of the carriers already support email provisioning, meaning that if I break my iPhone I can get a new eSIM very quickly, much faster than going to a store or waiting for one to be mailed. With a physical SIM, if everything works (the device to which one is transferring uses the same size and type SIM card as the old one, the SIM itself was not damaged in the accident that destroyed the previous phone,
etc.) the process would be as you describe. However, if anyone one of those things is not true (or even one does not have an old phone sitting around waiting to be used as a spare), one has no choice but go to a store or wait for a SIM to be mailed.
Now for most people, the more common situations would be: I damaged the screen on my current iPhone, but I still have a previous generation iPhone (as most people are not switching back and forth), and if I can get my damaged iPhone to work enough, I can transfer the eSIM. If not, I can probably get a new eSIM with a simple chat session with my carrier. If this does not yet work for your carrier, it is likely to do so soon (simply for their own interest - automated, electronic fulfillment is always going to be cheaper than sending a physical SIM, and making a customer wait provides a good reason for them to switch to another carrier).
They physical SIM process cannot improve, while the eSIM process has already improved over just the few years it has been in place.
No more casual SIM transfer from one phone to another, ever. It’s simply too complex.
Actually, this has already gotten better going from iPhone to iPhone in the years since eSIMs launched, and Apple has been focused on improving this experience. Based on patents filed and presentations at ITU and Mobile World Congress, it seems very likely that one will be able to store one’s eSIMs with one’s cloud provider, making casual transfers even easier than they are now.
Again, there are lots of ways that eSIMs can be made even easier, but physical SIMs cannot get better.
Apple makes it relatively easy to transfer one (working) iPhone eSIM to another iPhone. This is their upgrade scenario, the only thing they care about ($$$).
They care about user experience and have worked to improve it. That has meant working with carriers to enable quick transfer and automated provisioning. You argue this is to lock customers in to their ecosystem, but most of the improvements Apple is making to the eSIM ecosystem benefit every phone provider, not just Apple. Once a carrier support automated provision, as an example, any one can use it.
They give no procedure for moving to Android or something else.
Why should they? That is not their problem. That is Android’s problem. If they want to work to improve that process, they are free to do so. Apple invented eSIM quick transfer and worked with carriers to implement it. They were able to convince carriers to do so because they made it clear it was going to be a requirement for them to support the iPhone (and a requirement for them to be able to sell iPhones). Google is free to spend the same effort to improve this process. In the years since eSIM launched, it has already gotten easier to transfer an eSIM to a new device in this country (as an example, I am told that Verizon’s app now lets one do this process completely on one’s own, even moving from iPhone to Android).
If your iPhone is broken, their procedure doesn’t work. Prepare to call and wait for the letter or physically travel to one of your carrier’s shops to do it. For something trivially done with a regular SIM card!
Depending on how broken my old iPhone is, (
e.g. broken screen that I can still use,
vs. completely non-functional phone), I may still be able to do a quick transfer. However, even for cases where the old phone is too damaged to allow that, more and more carriers have already moved to automated provisioning. Here in the U.S. almost all do so, (including low priced and/or pre-paid ones).
Let us consider other cases where one needs to swap SIMs. A friend’s son’s iPhone was literally run over by a bus, that damaged the old SIM and required a new one. Fortunately he was in the same country as his service. Had he been overseas, he would have been completely out of luck (most, if not all, U.S. carriers will not mail a SIM overseas). With an eSIM process, he could walk into any store that sells phones, get an eSIM provisioned using chat and/or the carrier‘s app and be on his way.
The same is true for the other most common reason for needing a new phone - one’s old one was lost or stolen.
My secondary phone (Flip 4) is registered in a different European country and I checked the eSIM terms & conditions of that carrier, as well as all the carriers in that country. They need to mail me a one-time QR code to switch from SIM to eSIM. Any change of phone requires me to physically go to one of their shops to get a new one-time QR code, they won’t even mail it to me. That’s ˜45 minutes drive btw, to get there.
My guess is that supporting eSIM is relatively new for them. As I already pointed out, they have every interest in making that process easier. Otherwise, if one of their competitors does, users are likely to switch carriers, rather than jump through hoops. Again, the physical SIM process is as good as it will ever be. If your phone were lost, you would have no choice but make that drive. If you were traveling further afield you would be completely out of luck.
While it may not be as seamless for you today, using the experiences here in the U.S. as an example, it will get much easier and likely very quickly as more and more phones move to eSIM only.
And then of course there’s the various governments nudging/pushing for eSIM because it does away with the privacy of buying a pre-paid SIM card anonymously. You lose all privacy with eSIM.
Completely false. With physical SIMs, I either need to go to a physical location to get one (even if that is a vending machine), or have one sent to a physical location. With eSIMs, I can use crypto currency to purchase a pre-paid debit card, use that pre-paid debit card to fund a PayPal card. That PayPal account and an anonymous eMail provider are all I need to get a pre-Paid eSIM. I can even do that from another country.
If countries put laws in place to prevent anonymous eSIM purchases, they will do the same for physical SIM purchases. However, here again eSIMs have an advantage. One could easily get one from another country where these rules are not in place, without having to travel there or wait for a physical SIM to be sent (even if they were not blocked in transit).
Why would you get eSIM? Why go through the wringer and inconvenience yourself? There’s literally nothing it in for the end user. It’s just between less convenient to potentially severely inconvenient.
To summarize:
- Easier to have multiple eSIMs stored on ones device and trival to switch among them.
- Can be replaced as close to instantly as possible for a lost device (even when travelling internationally).
- Allows one to get a local country phone number before arriving in the country.
- Promises of further improvements to the user experience down the road (more on device eSIM storage, cloud based eSIMs, options for more than two active SIMs, etc.).
The first physical SIM I had was the size of a credit card. Then we moved to smaller SIMs. Next to micro SIMs and currently nano SIMs. At each of those transitions, one had to either have a new SIM mailed or try to cut one’s old SIM to size and hope one never needed the previous form factor.
I understand why Apple, one of the most cynical, unethical and greedy companies out there (yeah, despite their holier-than-though Tim Cook bs), is promoting it. It’s good for them, brings money. On the margin, once you got fooled into eSIM, you’ll just want to upgrade to another iPhone, otherwise it’s gonna be too complicated to change.
Wow, given how much you seem to hate them as a company, why would you even buy their products.
You look at their efforts to improve the user experience (automated provisioning, Quick Transfer, multi-eSIM storage and fast switching,
etc.), as ways to prevent users from being able to switch. Most people seem them for what they are, things that make my life easier and keep me in their ecosystem because the experience is better.
What I do not understand is in your world view, why did Google release eSIM support on the Pixel 2 a year before Apple’s first iPhone with it? Did they also want to lock users into the Apple ecosystem? Are they just stupid or self-sabotagin? Apple waited until they had done enough work with carriers in each of their major territories to make switching to an eSIM a good customer experience. They have continued refining this experience adding Quick Transfer and pushing for completely automated provisioning. That Google has not done the same is all on them.
Why are you though, Mr Alan Wynn?
As someone who travels extensively internationally eSIM has been a god send. The more Apple transitions to an eSIM only world and does the work with carriers to improve my experience the better off I am. I cannot wait for eSIM in iCloud (something I hope will be here in just a few years.
I’ll make you a prediction though. Ok in the US they got customers by the balls and will push eSIM because they can force this type of crap. But there will be at least one non-US iPhone 15 variant with regular SIM support.
I expect that we will see the last iPhone with physical SIM slots within 5 years at the most (more likely under 3).
This is because they actually have little leverage in Africa,
At least 28 of 54 countries in Africa already support eSIM with more on the way. Most Central and South American countries have eSIM support, as well as most Asian countries.
not to mention China, and given the dropping sales figures, Apple cannot afford to give up on whole geos.
I am a bit confused. You previously argued that these poor countries will not support eSIM because they cannot afford it and that Apple has no leverage with them, because they sell so few iPhones in them, but now seem to be arguing that Apple cannot possibly stop making an iPhone just to support them because they cannot afford to give up those sales. Which is it?
You argue that authoritarian governments want to force eSIM adoption because it makes it hard to have anonymous phones, but then argue that China, among the most authoritarian goverments on the planet, will never support eSIM. Which is it?
What I do not understand is give your dislike and distrust of Apple (“one of the most cynical, unethical and greedy companies out there”), why do you do business with them? Why do you spend time on a forum devoted to their products?
I like their ecosystem because it works well for me. I think their interests are currently aligned with mine (they care about privacy both because they see it as a selling point and a cost savings - they cannot incur costs for turning data over to governments or losing data in a breech that they do not have.
There may come a time where their interests no longer align with mine and I will have to evaluate other options. I do not love every decision they make. (I want Apple access points, routers, servers and travel routers again. I would love to see an Apple iCloud-backed home server. I would like to be able to purchase more iCloud storage and higher transfer speeds.
Etc.)
On balance, I think their choices are quite good and that is why I am a customer.
