The plans reported by GigaOM involve the European market only and would mean that customers could change carriers without having to change SIMs and complete the entire purchasing process through Apple’s website or retail stores. That would be effective in countries like Australia because the iPhone is offered by a multitude of carriers all operating on networks that use the same tech. In the US, the iPhone is an AT&T exclusive and incompatible with CDMA carriers.
But while the domestic implications of a baked-in SIM are few right now, one can imagine a future where they’re quite powerful. The transition to 4G looks like it will be dominated by LTE, at which point one device would be compatible with all carriers. And AT&T’s sweetheart deal looks all but expired. It may not be soon, but eventually an iPhone SIM would be just what Apple needs to circumvent carriers for hardware sales. Just like they did with apps. [GigaOM]
Steve
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:07 PM“That means cutting carriers out of the purchasing process and giving more power to Apple – and the consumer”
This is extremely naive to think that there’s the possibility that cutting out the middle man will be better for consumers. If there’s a chance to remove costs, Apple will take it and just pocket the change. Since when has Jobs ever shied away from a slightly higher profit margin?
And this is impossibly optimistic. Apple might want to integrate SIM cards, but the data will still have to travel through established infrastructure. Ie, they’d have to go through the carriers at some point.
James
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:08 PMand carriers are just going to allow that to happen without some sort of charge? pure fantasy.
Dave
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:21 PM“More power to Apple and the customer”
That’s got to be from Apple marketing material…its got nothing to do with anything other than giving Appple more control over their devices.
If this was the Windows phone 7 comming out with an integrated sim Microsoft would be getting slammed over it.
Shane
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:47 PMdoes that mean telcoms will have to go through some kind of apple approval process???
Bobbobboy
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 1:10 PMyep. Dont fool yourself.
This is just Apple making a play to be able to control which carriers the phone works in various regions and not letting the suckers out of their stores without being activated. They’ll be doing this so people dont flog them in other regions and pocket the demand or exchange rate difference themselves.
They will then use this to control pricing to their advantage between various regions so we can’t just buy something based on the cheapest price.
Knowing apple for the control freaks they are ideally they would like to be able to force people to have to change providers on their whim or who is currently offered them the sweetest deal at the time.
The only upside i can see from the consumers point of view would be you could switch carriers nice and easy without having to swap SIMs to chase the cheapest calls to various destinations but i doubt Apple has our intentions in mind for this.
Dean
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 2:23 PMDon’t forget the impact on the second hand market. Want to sell you old iPhone – too bad the SIM isn’t transferable. Oh and by the way we don’t reactivate old SIMs either.
Telstra have been trying a similar stunt with their NextG modems.
Quasio
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 4:32 PMI dont get it.. this to me smells more of.. we sell u the phone and you can’t change the sim easily..
hence we can lock you to a network forever, prevent you from ever on-selling the phone. etc prevent you from changing carriers without buying a new phone..
how did this become good for the customer? currently the customer can change sims and change network fairly instantly (provided it was unlocked to begin with (most post paid plans in aus)) but this would mean another hurdle to jump through to change the carrier..
Ha
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 8:40 PMWhy would I want to be able to not change my SIM whenever I want?
Say I have my friends on one carrier I get free text to and another I get $30 of calls. For $5 prepaid each it lasts me a while but I can’t easily change between them, it’s just stupid.
I know I’m exaggerating prices but you should be able to get the idea.