Whether you are a digital product enthusiast or not, I believe that you are very familiar with the SIM card of the mobile phone.
Whether it is a feature phone more than a decade ago, or today's smart phones, do not open SIM cards.
Strictly speaking, with a SIM card, the mobile phone has the most basic communication function.
However, according to the latest news, Apple, which has always been particularly aggressive in eliminating old technologies, plans to completely eliminate physical SIM cards in 2023.
According to the Brazilian blog Blog DoiPhone, the latest news they learned from Apple insiders in the United Kingdom shows that Apple plans to completely eliminate the physical SIM card slot on the iPhone 15 Pro (tentative name) released in 2023.
The iPhone 15 Pro will also be Apple's first non-physical SIM card design iPhone, Apple will continue to vigorously promote eSIM technology, will use dual eSIM on the iPhone 15 Pro to achieve dual card dual standby.
Of course, Apple may adopt different strategies according to the situation in each country and region, such as in the case of domestic eSIM is far from being widespread, it will continue to use physical SIM cards.
Apple has been pushing their eSIM technology for the past few years, and the iPhone 13 series is also Apple's first iPhone model with dual eSIM technology, allowing users to use two eSIM at the same time.
If the news is true, it also means that from 1991, the physical SIM card that has been born for more than three decades will gradually enter history under the leadership of Apple.
In the past, Apple also eliminated optical drives, as well as headphone jacks and other technologies that everyone is already very familiar with.
Although Apple was madly complained about by the outside world at the beginning of the cancellation, time has proved that Apple's approach is correct.
In terms of mobile SIM cards, Apple has also been improving and optimizing for the past decade.
Apple's iPhone 4 released in 2010 was the first to carry a smaller MicroSIM card.
This was followed by a smaller Nano SIM card, which was used on the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.
I believe that many early users of iPhones have had the experience of cutting cards in the past.
However, whether it is a MicroSIM card or a Nano SIM card, it is not a technological change, but it maximizes the use of the main chip of the SIM card, and in fact, the chip volume has not been reduced.
By 2015, Apple introduced the more technologically transformative eSIM card.
eSIM, full name is Embedded-SIM, also known as embedded SIM card.
As the name suggests, eSIM embeds the SIM card directly inside the phone, eliminating the need to install a separate SIM card.
Compared to traditional SIM cards, eSIM is significantly smaller.
In addition to saving the internal space of the mobile phone, it can also enable smaller smart wearable devices to achieve mobile network communication functions, which is more in line with future product design trends.
In addition, the use of eSIM is also more convenient, just load the operator's contract data into the built-in eSIM chip, you can install and use.
You don't have to run to the business hall to change the operator and change the number.
eSIM is also considered to be the future SIM card standard.
However, the implementation of eSIM in China has not been smooth.
Apple's first iPhone XR and iPhone XS Max models that support dual cards are used in foreign countries to achieve dual SIM + eSIM.
However, China is the world's only special dual-entity SIM card design.
The iPhone 13 series just released this year has achieved dual eSIM, while china is still a dual physical SIM card.
However, the wheel of history is rolling forward, eSIM is a recognized future trend from the outside world, I believe that under the leadership of Apple, physical SIM cards will be gradually eliminated.
In addition to the eSIM design, it is also rumored that Apple will cut off the charging interface on the 2023 Pro version of the iPhone and carry Apple's self-developed baseband.
The future can be expected.
For more information about the use of Apple device knowledge and skills and to inquire about the warranty, you can pay attention to my WeChat public account: cxkj-001 (fruit powder club).